Our One Hundred Themes
by Sileny
Summary: A series of oneshots and drabbles exploring how Seigaku, Hyotei, and Rikkai Dai go about with the different themes of life. Various Pairings.
1. Introductions

**Our One-Hundred Themes  
**By Sileny

_**Summary:**_ A series of oneshots and drabbles exploring how Seigaku, Hyotei, and Rikkai Dai go about with the different themes of life. Various Pairings.  
_**Disclaimer:**_ I own no one… 'cept for a few OC's as they pop up. *sighs*

* * *

_**Theme 1 – Introduction  
Pairing: TezuFuji (and Fuji with the general public)**_

It sometimes amazed Fuji at how much feeling could be conveyed with a simple greeting and introduction, depending on the person or party being introduced. Really, it amused him greatly.

For instance, when he introduced himself, he would simply say, "Konichiwa. I'm Fuji Syusuke," and accompany it with a sweet, angelic smile. Occasionally, he'd put in his school and his grade, but most of the time he ended it with those five words that left everyone guessing at what kind of person he was. It gave him a hint of mystery and power, which Fuji quite liked.

When Fuji introduced his family to others, his voice would be warm, although tainted with a hint of suspicion and over-protectiveness. In times like these, it was like Fuji was openly challenging anyone to hurt his family, and promising that they would meet a painful end if they rose to the challenge.

Then there was him when he introduced his favorite freshman, Echizen Ryoma. His voice would be cheerful as always, although there would always be a note of pride in his voice. He was telling everyone that Echizen was the best, that they, as the Seigaku Boys Tennis Team, were the best.

He was never wrong.

When introducing Eiji to someone (when Oishi was busy and Eiji simply begged to be introduced to someone or another and didn't want to do it himself), Fuji would assume a most cheerful expression. Even with his eyes closed in that everlasting smile, one could tell that his eyes were twinkling. He'd chatter aimlessly about whatever was interesting after stating his and Eiji's names, occasionally animating his conversations with hand gestures, much to Eiji's happiness (Eiji would then join him in his antics).

On the rare occasion that Fuji had to introduce someone he absolutely hated (like that purple-wearing, hair-twirling Miluki or whatever his name was) his whole body would radiate his unhappiness, so that everyone would know that he was not pleased with his current predicament even before he opened his mouth for the introductions. When he spoke, his voice would be carefully guarded, although he would always be sure to let poison drip through his words as a further indicator. But, thankfully, there were few people that Fuji greatly disliked, so he rarely had to do that kind of introduction. Eiji was right when he said that frowning takes too much energy…

Last, but certainly not least, there was him introducing Tezuka Kunimitsu. _His_ Tezuka Kunimitsu.

Whenever he was introducing Tezuka to someone, his voice was both prideful and humble, warning others to stay away and inviting them to come closer, full of warmth and at the same time holding wrath for anyone who dared to try to steal Tezuka away from him.

Yes… it did greatly amuse Fuji on how he could convey so many different feelings into a simple introduction. So now, as he walked into his first period class, on the first day of high school, as a new transfer student, he smiled sweetly, his head tilted gently to the side in a cute gesture.

"Ohayo. I'm Fuji Syusuke."

And he left it at that.

* * *

A/N: I know there are a lot of 'theme'-based fics out there, but I really really wanted to do a 100-theme challenge. I have all the themes out and am now busy fighting writer's block. ^_^ The reality of the matter is that this was supposed to be a drawing challenge, but it's more fun to write (or draw, depending on the day... XD)

Chocolate chip cookie and milk for however reviews! We have soy milk, too! Thank you!


	2. Love

**_Theme 2 – Love  
Pairing: YukimuraSanada [Alpha Pair]_**

Yukimura was a star student in Rikkai Dai Fuzoku. He was in all Honors classes, where he was always in the top five percent of the students. Overall, he was ranked number one in the school. Yukimura Seichii was the one people went to when they needed help, whether it be in mathematics, classics, languages such as Greek or English, chemistry, or art. Although he was always cheerful when offering help, it was clear that he particularly liked questions pertaining to mathematics, English, and art (it helped that those were his favorite and best subjects).

Yukimura knew the definitions of crazily difficult words; words that most people wouldn't use, wouldn't see, or wouldn't know.

And yet he knew them.

For example, Yukimura knew that 'reboantic' meant 'reverberating.' 'Nilgai' was a blue-gray, short-horned Indian antelope. 'Easily the first' could be easily translated by Yukimura as 'facile princeps,' and Yukimura was fond of saying things along the lines of: "facilis descensus Averno," roughly translating to "the road to evil, or Hell, is easy.'

Yukimura knew all of the difficult words in the dictionary, but was stumped by one, very tiny, four-lettered word. His teammates knew about this problem of his, and had adopted the habit of steering clear of him whenever he came towards them with a dictionary in hand and that look of utter and sincere puzzlement on his facial features.

But of course, they couldn't escape every single time.

"Sanada."

The addressed boy flinched as Yukimura called his name, his hand pausing in midair with his tennis jersey in it, folded and ready for his locker. Yukimura had a dictionary in one hand, a clipboard with a generous supply of paper in the other, pens in his pockets, and that puzzled look that was next to and very close behind the look of absolute joy that Sanada and the rest of the team feared (because what usually followed the look of absolute joy was some insane punishment as only Yukimura could think of). The rest of the team, wisely, took one look at the scene, praised Sanada in their minds for taking on their buchou in this mood, and scrambled out of the locker room.

Sanada made a mental note to assign them laps upon laps upon laps when he was freed later on, although he was currently wondering why his stomach was doing back flips on him.

Yukimura advanced on Sanada as the capped boy put away his jersey and shut his locker. "Sanada," he persisted, and finally, Sanada had no choice but to turn around and face his captain.

"Sanada, what is love?"

Sanada sighed, fiddling with his cap as he tried to think of how to answer Yukimura. "Well… it's…"

"Don't give me a dictionary definition, Sanada." Sanada twitched; how did Yukimura know that he had planned on giving him the standard dictionary definition and then run? Yukimura was a frightening person.

"Well…" Sanada faltered.

Yukimura advanced on him until he stood in front of him. "Ne, Sanada… what does it feel like?" he asked curiously, not seeming to notice the vice-captain visibly stiffen. "Is there something special that is seen? Or is it purely feeling-based?" he asked, stepping forward again so that Sanada's back was pressed against the row of lockers.

Sanada sighed once more, finally grasping the fact that Yukimura was not going to let him go until he was given an answer that was 'satisfactory' in his eyes. He leaned down, brown eyes boring into Yukimura's blue-violet ones. "Do you really want to know?" he asked, wondering why his voice was strangely low and husky.

Yukimura nodded, an innocently serious look on his face. Sanada reached out with a hand, grasping Yukimura's chin and lifting it up slightly. The next thing both boys knew, Sanada's mouth was pressed firmly yet gently on Yukimura's own, although the latter quickly opened his mouth and let Sanada's tongue probe hesitantly into that warm cavity. When they pulled away later on (Sanada looking shocked with himself, and Yukimura looking bemused), Sanada tried desperately to regain his composure, only to have Yukimura attach himself happily to his chest.

"Sanada… this is love, right?" he asked, looking up at him, a sweet smile on his face.

Sanada felt what little composure he had melting away as he stared into those dancing orbs of Yukimura's. "Yeah… I suppose," he muttered.

He was rewarded with another kiss.

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A/N: Alpha Pair is surprisingly hard to write about... *sniffles* Maybe I should have written an Atobe-centric oneshot on the love theme...  
But Yukimura and Sanada are nice. ^^

**Review** for blueberry muffins? Thank you!


	3. Light

**_Theme 3 – Light  
Pairing: RyoSaku_**

Contrary to popular belief, Ryuuzaki Sakuno was a lot more important than people originally gave her credit for. Despite her constant stuttering, her face that could take on the color of a tomato at any given moment, and her liability to trip over thin air, she was actually quite a bright student and often helped in plans concerning the tennis club and retreats for extra training with her grandmother and Tezuka and Oishi. If one were to ask either Tezuka or Oishi about what they thought of Sakuno, they would say something along the lines of: 'she's a very reliable person when she needs to be,' or 'she's alright' (that was Tezuka, not Oishi).

Now that they had all grown up, Sakuno was still a very reliable person when circumstances called for it. At the age of twenty-one, Sakuno was working in one of the best-respected businesses in Japan. She had tamed her stuttering and her blushing some time ago while in college, and now shone with a quiet, inner-confidence.

She was still clumsy, though, so it wasn't a rare sight to see her trip over nothing in particular and the pile of papers that she was carrying tumbling to the ground.

No one in the workplace knew much about Sakuno's home life. She took extra pains to keep her personal life and her business life different, although one would note that occasionally she'd walk into the office, her eyes red and puffy from fighting with some boyfriend or another. It seemed that Sakuno's ability to attract thugs and jerks to her hadn't changed after all those years. But whenever someone confronted Sakuno about it, she'd hurry and concoct an excuse and slip away before further questioning could be conducted. When one took the time to look at her, they would discover that Sakuno had a rather dark home life.

To say the least, it worried her co-workers, it worried her boss, and it worried one Echizen Ryoma.

Echizen Ryoma was now in the pro circuit. He'd been one of the top singles male tennis players ever since he had entered the life of a pro after high school graduation, and he and Tezuka constantly battled on the courts for the position of World's Number One and the most number of Grand Slams won. His name was constantly a headline on the newspaper, and it was painfully hard not to know about him. His fan club had grown over the years, now including women worldwide, not just those of Japan. It was actually surprising to many critics that Echizen had remained single when so many attractive young women out there wanted to claim his heart.

If only they knew that his heart had already been dazzled by someone.

"Ryuuzaki, thanks for coming today."

Sakuno sat down opposite of Ryoma in the open-air café that he had called her out to, wondering what on earth it could be that he wanted to talk to her about. She sighed lightly, hoping that the thick layer of makeup she had applied to her face would successfully hide the baggy black circles under her eyes and the abnormal paleness of her skin that she had gotten from lack of sleep and her recent bout of sadness. While she agreed that her most recent boyfriend had been a bit too… clingy? Demanding? She wasn't sure quite what to call him. While he was a mix of a lot of things, she had hoped that she could actually work it into a lasting relationship.

Sakuno was just so, so tired of loving someone and then losing that person. She wanted something a bit more… permanent, in a sense, such as a relationship that lasted for a few months or years instead of the standard days or weeks that she had been seeing lately. Every breakup just seemed to make her life a tad bit darker, and she was so tired of not having someone or something to turn to when that darkness threatened to swallow her whole. Tomoka was a wonderful friend, granted, but she had her own family to worry about, and Sakuno really didn't want to trouble her with her own problems.

"Did you want something, Ryoma-kun?" she asked kindly, ordering a coffee (black, no sugar or cream added) and then handing the menu to the waiter as Ryoma had already ordered.

Ryoma lifted his shoulder in a half-shrug, glancing around him suspiciously as if to ascertain that he wasn't being stalked by any of his more rabid fans. "Not particularly. I just had the urge to see the girl that had hair that was too long after a long time and have a chat. You know, indulge myself in having a normal life. Something like that." He took a sip of his smoothie.

Sakuno blinked in surprise, although said nothing for the time being, instead accepting her coffee and sipping quietly at the bitter liquid in her cup. "So… was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about, Ryoma-kun?" she asked politely, still slightly clueless about what exactly the man opposite of her wanted.

"Tonight… are you free tonight?"

"Eh? Yes… I'm free…"

"Perfect," Ryoma muttered, setting down his smoothie and scribbling something onto a pad of paper, tearing off the page and handing it to her. "There's something that I think you'll like to see."

Surprised, Sakuno could do nothing but accept the sheet of paper as Ryoma stood up, paying for both his drink and her's.

He leaned over so that he could speak directly into her ear: "Tonight, then; I'll be waiting."

Perhaps it was simply the way he said it, but suddenly Sakuno could see a tiny spark of light at the edge of her dark world. _Ryoma-kun…_

She smiled brightly, the first genuine smile in weeks, as Ryoma turned to leave. "I'll be there," she promised, and he simply smirked over his shoulder at her, gave her a small nod, and left.

* * *

A/N: It was surprisingly hard to write something with the theme of 'light.' At first I had Perfect Pair, then I entertained Alpha Pair. I think Imperial Pair also snuck in, and then there were the crack pairings. But in the end, it ended up being RyoSaku.

Not too bad, actually, considering this is the first RyoSaku thing I've ever written. ^_^ Kinda on the long-ish side, but not bad altogether. I think...

Ice cream for a **review**? We have many flavors!


	4. Dark

**_Theme 4 – Dark  
Pairing: AtobeJiroh_**

Atobe liked a lot of things in his near-perfect life (because he knew that there were bumps in the road in his life, and if they were there, than his life wasn't perfect). He liked his dog, Beet. He liked his school, even though the majority of its population was idiotic fangirls. He liked his tennis team and he liked his Regulars and he liked the sport itself. He liked the day because the sun was out and shining upon his glorious self.

And of course, Atobe liked his Jiroh.

What Atobe _didn't _like was the night. When it was day, he was a proud man, praised by his fans (no matter how annoying they may be, praise was _always_ a good thing in his books), respected by his rivals, looked up to by his teammates. But as soon as night fell, as soon as it got dark, all of the attention vanished, and alone in his large and empty house (his parents would always be gone on some business trip or another) his insecurities and his doubts that he was able to push away with the power of the sun and attention crept up on him and took him by storm.

He hated it. Absolutely hated it.

It would always be him, alone in that vast house after night had fallen, curled up in his bed under his covers praying fervently, almost feverishly and like he was possessed by a demon, for the sun to come out, so that those dark nagging thoughts of his could be chased away. And what were these thoughts of his that bothered him so much? They were the following, not limited to them of course, but mainly following this line of thought:

_What if something happens to Beet because I'm not careful when I leave for school in the morning?_

_What if I'm not good enough for my parents' standards?_

_What if I'm not fit for leading my team as captain to higher levels?_

_What if I suddenly lose my Insight and the skills I worked for in tennis?_

But those were nothing, nothing at all, compared to his greatest fear:

_What if I lose Jiroh? What if I hurt him because I don't deserve him?_

Those thoughts would swirl around in his head, taunting him, driving him crazy until he climbed out of bed and turned on every single light in the house. Only then could he have enough peace and feel comfortable enough to sleep. It was a recurring problem for his… one that he expected that he would shoulder for the rest of his days, but would be one that only he knew about.

In truth, he had never expected for Jiroh to find about this weakness of his. He had never wanted it to happen, had never mentioned anything about it to his boyfriend, actually. Jiroh had discovered it by himself, purely by chance.

Jiroh had invited himself over to spend the night with Atobe. It was the first time Jiroh would do so (though it wouldn't be the last), and it was the first time Atobe had ever had a friend sleep over. Naturally, both boys were excited, although Jiroh showed it more willingly than Atobe did. Jiroh brought along a movie from his house, a favorite comedy of his, one that he had watched so many times that he could recite every line in the movie to Atobe without batting an eyelash. Even though, he still laughed excitedly as he watched it, acting like it was his first time ever seeing the movie.

Jiroh's good humor was contagious. First, Atobe would simply smirk. Then, he would smile. Following that, he would chuckle lightly. And finally, he would laugh, a nice-sounding laugh that Jiroh loved and that Atobe didn't know that he had.

But as soon as night had fallen and they had climbed into bed (Jiroh had pouted and begged to sleep in Atobe's bed with him, and Atobe had had no choice but to relent, not that he was complaining or anything…) Atobe's worries were on him again. Jiroh had already fallen asleep, and although he knew that he could have blown up the house and the other boy would still sleep (not that he would try or give anyone else the idea of trying), Atobe did the best he could not to move around and wake him up.

But in the end, it seemed like he failed in that regard.

"Kei-chan? Wa ya movin' for?" came a sleepy mumble as Jiroh poked his head out of his covers to see a shaking Atobe. The sight must have been ground-breaking because the boy was instantly awake (a rare feat indeed) and had pounced on his boyfriend. "Oi! Oi! Keigo! What's wrong? What's wrong?" he had nearly screamed, clinging to Atobe and refusing to let go.

"Ah… don't tell me you're afraid of the dark?!"

And it had surprised Atobe that Jiroh had been able to find the butt of his problems so easily. Jiroh could easily be as insightful as Atobe himself, or as smart as Oshitari, yet for the most part Jiroh just… slept… and kept his potentials hidden.

"Supposing I was afraid of the dark, Jiroh, what would you do?" Atobe asked softly. Jiroh let go of him then, sliding back under the covers but cuddling next to him like an affectionate puppy.

"Hmm? What would I do?" Jiroh echoed, a thoughtful edge to his voice. "That's easy! I'd simply tell Kei-chan that everything's alright, that he doesn't have to be afraid of the dark because I'm here and I'll chase all of his worries away!" And with that, he stretched up and kissed his boyfriend on the cheek. "See? Just like that."

"And if this Kei-chan of yours argues against you, what would you do, then, Jiroh?"

He could see Jiroh's smile. He could feel its warmth even in the darkness. "Easy again! I'll just tell him that I love him."

And that was a good enough reason for Atobe.

* * *

A/N: Atobe's a bit OOC in this. Sorry. But I figure it's possible for him to act like this because people tend to act differently around others. In a sense, if one was to really analyze people, we would simply be the same material covered with layers and layers of different masks. We simply show a different mask to different people. That's how I see it.

And this is the first AtobeJiroh fic I ever wrote and I am immensely pleased with the outcome. Yay. Jiroh's so adorable. ^_^

Chocolate cake for **reviews**! Thank you!


	5. Seeking Solace

**_Theme 5 – Seeking Solace  
Pairing: AtobeTezuka [Imperial Pair]_**

Tezuka was not always the rock that his tennis team knew he was. There were times when he wanted to break down and lean against something, knowing that, if only for a few moments, he would be safe from his troubles, just as anyone else wanted to be. He had always imagined his pillar of support as being someone who was kind, gentle, yet protective when they needed to be… the perfect image of a mother, now that he thought about it. What he had gotten instead was quite another story.

Atobe Keigo was… eccentric, to say the least. He was a spoiled brat, was arrogant beyond measure, had an ego that seemed to know no limits, and was a full-blown narcissist on top of all of that. Nonetheless, Tezuka had always respected Atobe, not only because he was the captain of the very impressive Hyoutei tennis team, but because of his obvious hard work and dedication that he put into his tennis and his team.

If Atobe had not been such a strong backbone for the Hyoutei team, they probably wouldn't have made it as far as Atobe had brought them, even with all of those talented players.

It was shortly after the tennis season had ended that Tezuka discovered the softer side of Atobe, when both of them had happened to bump into each other in the park and had decided to talk about their teams and the year they had had. It shamed him to recall it, since he had been careless and had let down his guard (what had happened to his 'don't let down your guard' talks, hmm…?) for a few mere instances, and Atobe had read him.

Had read him painfully quickly and painfully accurately, might Tezuka add.

"Tezuka," the diva had said to him, frowning at him over his coffee. Tezuka frowned himself and turned his gaze away from Atobe, focusing instead on the fountain in front of the park bench that the two of them were sitting on.

To say the least, this did not please the great Atobe Keigo. "Tezuka, Ore-sama demands that you look at Ore-sama when Ore-sama speaks to you!"

Tezuka heaved a sigh and did so, his stoic mask back in place so that Atobe could no longer read his inner feelings. But the damage was done, and he was shocked to see those blue-gray eyes swimming with an emotion (or more than one, perhaps…) that had never before been seen in Atobe's eyes. "What?" he asked warily.

Atobe snorted. "Leading Seigaku must be putting a strain on you. Get yourself someone who you can vent your feelings on," he said curtly, draining his coffee and tossing the empty cup away into a nearby trash can.

Tezuka raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And who would you suggest?"

Atobe shrugged, leaning back against the back of the bench, staring up at the sky. "Ore-sama only knows that you need to vent to someone. Ore-sama doesn't know what you need to vent _about_, so therefore Ore-sama cannot give you a recommendation. Ore-sama's Insight is only so powerful."

"Hn."

The next part was spoken so softly that Tezuka almost missed it, "Although… Ore-sama wouldn't mind if you vented to Ore-sama." The brown-haired boy turned his head sharply to stare at his silver-haired company to assure himself that he had not heard wrong and found Atobe purposefully avoiding his gaze.

Yes… Tezuka had not heard wrong. He was not deaf yet. He didn't quite know if this relieved him or worried him.

But it seemed that something had passed between the two captains that afternoon, because following that incident, Atobe made it a habit of finding Tezuka whenever Tezuka wanted or needed to vent (how he knew when those were, Tezuka did not know. Atobe would just show up either in his limo or from walking whenever those times came upon Tezuka.), and Tezuka got a good look at the other side of Atobe. While he wasn't as gentle as he had hoped for, or as kind as he wanted, and he had a tendency to be over-protective all of the time, at the same time Atobe was so much more of a pillar of support than Tezuka had ever dreamed of. Atobe was patient beyond words, strong beyond comparison, and more constant than the sun which never failed to rise each and every day.

No matter how one looked at it, Atobe was the one that Tezuka went to when he was troubled, and it was to Atobe that all of his grievances were relayed to, without fear that they would be revealed to the world.

It was Atobe that was the one who provided solace to the Tezuka that was not a rock, but instead was like every other person in the world.

* * *

A/N: Ah... Imperial Pair... you are so much harder to write for than you let on. *sniffs* And your theme... ugh... XP Shorter than the other ones, but I was inspired by various pretty pictures of AtoTezu, so is an Imperial Pair drabble! I actually quite like this pairing.

My mother is baking bread with taro filling (its sweet and yummy). Bread with taro filling for **reviews** (fresh from the oven, might I add?)! Thank you!


	6. Break Away

**_Theme 6 – Break Away  
Pairing: OishiEiji [Golden Pair]_**

Eiji would have very much liked it if he and Oishi could remain partners forever. In the world that Eiji had created in his mind (and would very much like for it to have been reality, mind you!), he and Oishi would be together all through their years of high school, get into the same college, share the same dorm room or apartment building (depending on which was more convenient), and then live in the same neighborhood after they had grown and graduated. Oishi would have remained Eiji's support, someone that Eiji could go to in order to pour out all of his troubles, from miniscule to extreme.

But Eiji knew that that was simply a fantasy of his, and that in reality, Oishi wouldn't always be there within glomping range of Eiji. It gnawed at his heart, giving him a wide range of emotions. When thinking of this he would become sad and dejected for one instance, bounce up and become his usual optimistic self for another, descend into a glaring fit of range for the next.

But somehow, by the time their third year at Seigaku, Eiji had finally figured out that no matter what he did or would do, Oishi would still manage to pursue his own dreams, the ones that didn't include Eiji. But it was still nice to dream.

They were in Osaka, the Seigaku team having arranged a practice with the Shitenhouji team. It had been fun, it had been wild, and Eiji liked it very much. The second day of their stay had been granted as a free day, and Eiji, who had scouted out a map from the nice flight attendant on the plane, now dragged Oishi to the nearby deer park.

"Oishi! Let's feed the deer!" he had said happily, clinging to his double's partner's arm, and Oishi had had no choice but to buy the paper-thin round bread that was sold for the tourists to feed said deer. He didn't look particularly annoyed when he paid for it, though… over the years Oishi had gotten used to paying for Eiji's financial mishaps.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Eiji asked as he fed his gathering of deer. "We haven't gotten to take it easy like this for a long time." Oishi, seated on a nearby bench, nodded in agreement, taking the package of deer food from Eiji when it was handed to him as Eiji plopped cheerily next to him. Eiji stared contentedly at the deer. "But when we get back, it'll be hitting the books for entrance exams."

To Oishi's amusement, there was no childish pout on Eiji's face at the mention of entrance exams like he had first expected. A small smile flitted across his face before he turned serious, leaning forward and looking at the ground beneath his feet. "About that… Eiji…" he started, earning a curious "Hmm?" from the other boy. "I'm not going to be going to our high school," he finished.

There was a moment of silence while Eiji processed this new information before simply going, "Eh?" looking puzzled.

Oishi swallowed, wondering nervously how his long-time partner and his best friend would react to what he had to say. Eiji's reaction to when he had not been able to play doubles with him during Nationals still rang in his ears. "I plan on applying for an outside high school; a high school that's outside of the immediate Tokyo range," he said, glancing up at Eiji.

Eiji turned towards him, distress obvious in his features. "Why?" he asked, looking worried, panicked, even. "You never mentioned this before!"

Oishi felt a flash of guilt pass through him. Eiji had a point; the two of them shared _everything_ with each other, so this must have been an incredibly big blow to him, bigger than Oishi had originally calculated. "I wasn't sure about it," Oishi admitted, planting his hands on his knees. "But I've given it a lot of thought, and now I'm certain. I want to become a doctor."

Eiji cocked his head to the side, watching his friend's serious expression, a rare sight on the boy's usually kind face. "With Tezuka's arm injury and my own, I've learned that it's painful not to do the things that you really want to do at your best potential. For us, it was tennis. For others, it might be different. But no matter what they want to do, I want to help people like that." He looked apologetic. "I'm sorry for not discussing this with you beforehand."

Eiji was silent for a moment, tucking his hands behind his head. "The studying will be tough, then, won't it?" he asked, staring up at the sky. "Oishi is already prepping for an entrance exam to an outside high school. I could never do that, nya." Eiji sighed lightly, watching as a puffy cloud drifted overhead. "Maybe that means I should try out to be a stuntman, then…" he mused.

Oishi chuckled lightly in spite of himself. "If that's the case, I'll be your personal trainer," he offered, and Eiji grinned at him.

In later days to come, Eiji would sometimes wonder why he had so readily agreed to simply let Oishi go. Alternating feelings of happiness that Oishi was chasing after a dream he really wanted, sadness at the fact that Oishi was leaving him behind, and anger at the thought that he hadn't even had the chance to give 'advice' to Oishi nagged him constantly. But he said nothing about this to Oishi, instead heartily congratulating the other boy when he received news that he had passed the entrance exam, even though it hurt so badly on the inside.

Why did he do this?

Because Oishi was too precious of a friend for Eiji to lose forever and because Eiji had promised himself that he would never burden Oishi if he could help it.

So, that was why Eiji could only watch sadly as his best friend left him, breaking the famed Golden Pair apart. Eiji pushed his shoulders back and lifted his chin. Oishi had broken away from the past and was headed for a new future.

If he could do that, then so could Eiji.

* * *

A/N: For those of you who have seen the new OVA called 'Another Story,' you will immediately know where I pulled the dialogue from. *wink wink nudge nudge* But it was a very sweet if short dialogue, and beside, Oishi-kun would make a wonderful doctor with his Mother Hen ways. ^_^

It's another one based more on friendship, although it's up to you to decide whether or not there's any romance in it. I suppose maybe? Just a teensy bit? *shrugs*

Strawberry smoothie for a **review**? Thank you!


	7. Innocence

**_Theme 7 – Innocence  
Pairing: TezukaFuji [Perfect Pair]_**

Tezuka shut the book he was reading with a much louder snap than what was absolutely needed. Behind his glasses, his hazel eyes gleamed dangerously as he turned to look around his shoulder and glared at the other man who was, currently, lounging lazily on the floor behind his chair, coloring in a coloring book with crayons and munching on a bowl of popcorn.

"Fuji." The word was forced out of his mouth flatly. If it was an object, it would have been a stone, and plummeted straight to the ground, perhaps bouncing a few times upon Tezuka's knee as it carried on its descent.

"Yes, Tezuka?" Fuji asked, grinning impishly. He looked very much like a Cheshire cat; Tezuka would not be surprised if he saw a pair of ears flicking on his head and a tail swaying behind him.

No, Tezuka would not be very surprised at all. After all, Fuji Syusuke was always pulling some devilish prank or something of that sort. That brilliant brain of his was always turning… thinking of new ideas in which to torment others. In fact, Tezuka had half a mind to say that the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland was actually based entirely on Fuji. It wouldn't be too much of a far-fetched idea, he felt.

"Fuji, you're getting popcorn all over the floor," Tezuka grunted. Fuji's smile widened and Tezuka knew at that moment that that was the wrong thing to say to the lithe photographer. Fuji rolled over onto his back, tossing aside his crayon (it spun along the floor and hit the wall, leaving a spot of purple on the whiteness, next to the other various spots of color from previous crayons.), and, just to spite Tezuka, took a handful of popcorn and put half of it in his mouth, scattering the other half along the floor.

Tezuka fought down the urge to make Fuji run a thousand laps around the apartment complex. Just barely. Tezuka liked to have his living area nice and clean, and seeing popcorn scattered all over the floor and crayon marks on the white wall (that was supposed to stay white, thank you very much!) vexed him to no end.

Why Tezuka had ever agreed to share an apartment with the smaller man vexed him to no end, as well, now that he thought about it.

It was after the popcorn was cleaned up (Tezuka confiscated all of Fuji's crayons, too, while he was at it, despite Fuji's whining) that it started to thunder. Peering out of the window, Tezuka could see dark clouds gathering in the sky. Shutting the window and turning around, he was just in time to confiscate the set of markers Fuji had managed to get his hands on (more whining from Fuji). "There's a storm coming," he said shortly, ignoring that childishly pouting face. By the looks of it, it would be a big storm, too.

And Tezuka was right. In less than an hour, it had gotten frighteningly dark outside and the rain came, falling down in sheets, thick and hard, drumming against the apartment building.

Tezuka was snuggled quite happily in bed, his glasses on his nightstand, one hand pinching at the bridge of his nose, when the storm hit its peak. He wondered when he had developed this habit… going to bed and relaxing whenever there was a big thunderstorm rumbling overhead. By the time the storm would have subsided, he would have left his bed, fully recharged from his rest.

One side of his bed shifted down, giving a soft creak of protest as added weight got on it. Tezuka turned his head to see Fuji vanishing underneath his covers. One fine eyebrow rose as Fuji snuggled close to him, and in moments, a head covered with fine wisps of honey-colored hair popped out from the blankets. Fuji leaned against Tezuka, quiet, pulling the covers quietly around himself.

"Fuji," Tezuka greeted, still not quite comprehending why Fuji was in _his _bed, and not his own. "What are you doing?"

Fuji looked up at him, snuggling even closer, if such a thing was even possibly. "Ne, Tezuka, I heard that thunderstorms aren't as scary if one cuddles with people that are special to them."

Tezuka snorted. "Fuji, since when have you ever been afraid of thunderstorms?" he asked, a hint of incredibility creeping into his voice.

"Since now," was Fuji's stubborn reply, and he latched himself onto Tezuka's chest.

And Tezuka could only sigh. Trust Fuji, who did not believe in the things that normal children believed in anymore, to hold onto the childish belief that cuddling made thunderstorms less scary.

Not that Tezuka was complaining or anything, of course. It did his consciousness and his sanity a great deed to know that some part of Fuji still retained his childish innocence.

And besides, Tezuka could admit to himself that Fuji's idea of 'cuddling' was… alright. But that was only to himself. If Fuji ever knew that, Tezuka would never hear the end of it.

"Does the storm seem as frightening, now?" he asked Fuji.

Fuji, pressing his cheek against Tezuka's chest, nodded. "Yeah… it's a lot better now," he said softly, looking up at Tezuka and smiling. Tezuka heaved another sigh. It was _not fair_ that such a devious person had such an innocently angelic smile. It really, really wasn't… because armed with that smile, Tezuka couldn't find the heart to make him run the laps Fuji so desperately deserved.

"You are anything but innocent, you know that?"

Fuji snuggled even closer. "Ah… I know. But if I act innocent once in a while you can't do anything against me."

Trust Fuji's innocence to have a darker drive behind it.

* * *

A/N: Ah... I skipped a theme. But I will get back and write it! I promise! It's just... I haven't updated this one in so long and I was all like: 'NOOO!!! MUST UPDATE!!!' (ten days is a loooonnnngggg time)

So, yeah... prettiful Perfect Pair. And Fuji's not so innocent innocence. I think it worked pretty well. :)

**Review** for a Pink Cloud? It's a fluffy cloud of whipped topping, raspberry gelatin, cottage cheese, and pineapples; very yummy despite what one might think at first glance. ^_^  
Of course, you could still leave a review without dessert... *wink wink nudge nudge*


	8. Heaven

**__**

Theme 8 – Heaven  
Pairing: YukimuraKirihara [Uke Pair]

Kirihara scrambled out of bed, his black hair messy from sleep. He stood next to his bed; the covers were rumpled from where he had kicked them away from his body, his sea-green eyes still unfocused from sleep, and yawned. Somewhere on the floor, under a pile of clothes which included his tennis uniform and school uniform, his alarm clock rang. Thankfully, the clothes atop it lessened the shrillness of its ringing. Kirihara swore that he would go mad if he had to listen to it ring in all its loudness.

His mother's voice suddenly sounded through his closed door. "Akaya! Hurry up or breakfast will be all eaten by the time you get down here!"

Kirihara scratched his head and gave out another tremendous yawn. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" he cried out, digging through his clothes pile and retrieving his school uniform. It was wrinkled from its overnight treatment of being a heap on his floor, and Kirihara shoved his covers to one side of the bed, laying out his uniform on it and attempting to smooth out as much of the wrinkles as possible with his hands.

He gave up after a few minutes, instead just taking the shirt and jamming it onto his head after he had torn off his pajamas. His night clothes went onto the pile his uniform had previously been in, his tennis uniform was rescued and then shoved unceremoniously into his tennis bag.

Sanada would kill him later for looking disheveled in his crinkled jersey, but right now, the Junior Ace really didn't care.

"Ohayo," he mumbled, stumbling into the kitchen. His tennis bag and school bag were dropped at the side of the door as he sat himself down heavily in his chair, regarding his toast. The bread stared back at him from the table, mocking him.

"Akaya, if you don't hurry, you'll be late," his mother chided, looking over her shoulder at her still half-asleep son. "Why don't you just take the toast and eat it on the way to school? You don't want to trouble your sempai-tachi with being late again."

"Hai…"

Kirihara decided that he hated mornings, especially school mornings. What good were they, anyway? He was forced to get out of bed extra early for morning tennis practice (don't get him wrong… he loved tennis, he just didn't like the amount of sleep he lost because of it). It was usually right after the teacher had walked into the classroom that he discovered that he hadn't finished all of his homework. He usually got detention for that, and this year, there was a really strict detention teacher who didn't let him sleep. He would be late for after school tennis practice, and so tired that he could barely open his eyes.

Sanada would snap, of course, and he'd get a stern lecture. Occasionally, in his hazy sleep-deprived state, Kirihara would voluntarily ask for one of Sanada's famous slaps in order to wake himself up.

Needless to say, they came willingly enough, and by the time Kirihara got home, his cheek was stinging, his body was sore, and all he wanted to do was sleep. Except then there was homework, which he would attempt to do, and because of the events that had happened that day during school, he would usually fall asleep atop his textbook, homework barely looked at.

The whole cycle would repeat itself the next morning, more or less, and the next, and the next, and the next.

That was why Kirihara disliked mornings so much. It was a hellish torture for him that he felt that he could do very well without.

"My, Kirihara-kun, did you not get enough sleep last night?"

Kirihara glanced up, one corner of the toast in his mouth while the rest dangled in midair, to see none other than Yukimura Seiichi, his captain, walking behind him. "Buchou," he mumbled around his toast, causing the older boy to chuckle, flashing a sweet smile.

"When did you get to bed last night?" Yukimura asked, studying him closely as he fell into step besides him. Kirihara munched sullenly on his toast, composing his answer.

Finally, "I'm not a morning person, I guess."

The junior frowned, finishing the rest of his breakfast and wiping crumbs off of his face. "Why does morning practice have to be so early?" he whined, looking very much like a child. "I don't want to practice! I want to sleep!"

This invoked another chuckle from Yukimura, and Kirihara pouted. This was a very serious subject for him! He didn't understand why Yukimura thought it was so funny.

"Saa… Kirihara-kun, the essence of morning practice is to hold it in the morning. It's actually not that early." Kirihara pouted some more, looking sulky. "Won't you smile, Kirihara-kun? Such a frown doesn't belong on such an adorable face like yours."

It took a while for the words to sink in, and when they did, the only thing that came out of his mouth was a very intelligible, "Huh?"

To say the least, this amused Yukimura to no end. "You never knew that you had an adorable face, Kirihara-kun?" he asked, feigning innocence.

They paused at the school gates, with Kirihara rubbing his eyes one last time before he would chance entering the school courtyard. Yukimura's hand on his shoulder stopped him, though.

"May I?" he asked, and Kirihara blinked up at him, puzzled. The next thing he received was a hug, warm and pleasant, and he let himself lean against the older boy's frame as he inhaled the fresh smell that was purely Yukimura. "I should walk with you to school more often," Yukimura mused, body shaking lightly with his laughter.

"Mmm…" was another one of Kirihara's intelligible answers as he pulled away reluctantly. "If Buchou does, then that would be great!"

Of course, it would be greater than great. His usually hellish morning could be transformed into absolute bliss, if only he could have that sweet smile all to himself for ten minutes every morning.

"I'll be sure to drop by every morning, then. Our houses aren't that far apart," Yukimura said. Kirihara fairly glowed.

It had only taken a few words, but a few words could do a lot to a person, Kirihara supposed as he trailed after Yukimura for practice. True to his captain's words, he walked him to school every morning from then on. Kirihara actually grew to like waking up early in the morning. He had the smile of an angel to greet him outside his door when he left the house, they laughed in that way that people did when they had secrets that absolutely infuriated Sanada, much to their amusements.

Kirihara swore that if Heaven itself wasn't like this, he would demand a refund in whatever way possible.

* * *

A/N: ... ... ...

**Review** for rice cake? Please? Even for this failure of a thing?


	9. Breath Again

**_Theme 9 – Breath Again  
Pairing: YagyuuNiou [Platinum Pair]_**

Yagyuu Hiroshi was perfect; in fact, his classmates, teachers, and family would even go at great lengths to say that Yagyuu Hiroshi was the epitome of perfection. He was good in every subject, very athletic, had good looks (the girls fawned over him just as much as they did Yukimura), and he always scored within the top five of the Rikkai students every time achievement exams took place.

There was not a flaw anywhere on Yagyuu.

Except for one, tiny, aspect…

"Oi, Yagyuu!" The boy turned around when he heard his name being called, his tennis bag slung over his shoulder as he headed for home after tennis practice, to see a silver-haired boy running towards him, his rattail bouncing cheerfully on his back.

"Niou-kun," Yagyuu greeted with a polite nod of his head. Niou, ignoring politeness and throwing manners to the four winds, slung an arm casually around his friend's shoulders. Yagyuu made no move to shrug it off; by now he had learned that it was simply a waste of his energy.

"Mura and everyone are going over to the karaoke joint… something about 'celebrating the finishing of finals.' You should come, too. Akaya wants to know if you can really sing." Niou grinned impishly, starting to steer the bespectacled boy in the direction of the karaoke place.

Yagyuu considered the offer for a moment before shaking his head, taking Niou's arm and removing it from around his shoulders with his hands. "I'm sorry, Niou-kun," he said, again very politely, cold and formal. "I need to get home; my mother would fuss if I'm late. I'll see you tomorrow." With those parting words and a nod of his head he strode out the school gates, turning left instead of the right as Niou had wanted him to.

The next week, Niou was back again with an invitation to go bowling. Once again, Yagyuu turned down the offer. It persisted like this for several months… Niou would dangle invitations to outings and fun, and Yagyuu would decline them every single time under the pretense that he had either homework to do, siblings to watch, or simply that his parents were expecting him and would worry if he wasn't home at his usual time.

Yagyuu had figured that if Niou was rejected enough times, the other boy would give up. But Niou was stubborn… frighteningly so, as Yagyuu found out when Niou had marched up to him after tennis practice one day, grabbed his wrist, and forcibly wrenched him out of the clubroom, marching with a purpose in any direction but the direction to his house.

"Niou-kun, what are you doing?" Yagyuu asked, and despite himself, the faintest trace of annoyance crept into his voice. "I need to get home. There's—"

Niou shot a glare over his shoulder at him. "No," he said flatly, grip tightening. "You're not going home. Not yet, anyways." There was no playful gleam in those blue eyes that Yagyuu was used to seeing, instead, Niou was dead serious, and so the boy decided to go along with whatever Niou had planned.

But just this once; never again.

It turned out that what Niou had in mind was the local amusement park. Yagyuu could only stare at the rides, wondering why he would have to be dragged here, of all places, especially since he had grown out of those rides many years ago. He turned to Niou, one eyebrow raised in puzzlement. Niou simply shrugged.

"When I'm overloaded, I ride the roller coaster," he said simply, like that explained all of the world's problems.

An hour later, Yagyuu was allowed to stagger away from the biggest roller coaster he had ever ridden on (he had been forced to ride it at least ten times, courtesy of Niou), green in the face and stomach feeling queasy. The next stop Niou dragged him to was the zoo, followed by a local temple where they prayed (or Niou, at least. Yagyuu hadn't thought of what to ask the gods for before Niou was taking him to the next destination).

Their last stop was the park. Yagyuu sat down on the bench, more than happy to not be moving anymore, while Niou sat down next to him. After a few minutes of silence Yagyuu turned to his friend. "And just what was that all about?" he asked, frowning.

Niou leaned back against the bench, closing his eyes briefly. One blue eye opened lazily so that he could look at Yagyuu. "I," he said slowly, drawing it out and placing in a dramatic pause. "I have discovered your one fatal flaw."

"And that would be…?"

Niou stretched his arms over his head, yawning. "You don't _live_. You're only a robot with a preprogrammed sequence in you that dictates what you do. That's not living." For Yagyuu was so perfect that he was no longer human, and it made Niou gag. He wasn't in awe of his friend, he pitied him. How could one go on day after day with nothing fun and entertaining? All Yagyuu did was study, study, study. Yagyuu was like a marionette, made to dance and do extraordinary things but never in control of itself… its mind or its movements.

Later that night, when Niou had finally let Yagyuu go home and he was lying on his bed, staring at his ceiling, Yagyuu reflected on what Niou had said to him. In the dark sanctuary of his room, he frowned, finding that there was truth in the silver-haired boy's words, whether he liked it or not. He had never felt so relaxed before that afternoon that he had spent with Niou. It had been… fun… the rides were exhilarating in a way that he had not thought was possible.

Yagyuu's parents and his expectations might have made him a robot who didn't live, but Niou brought life back to him. Niou helped him to breathe again.

* * *

A/N: I always thought the 'Gentleman' needed to lighten up. Niou does the job nicely. :)

**Review** for a slushie? Thank you!


	10. Memory

**_Theme 10 – Memory  
Pairing: MaruiJiroh [Sweet Pair]_**

Marui fairly dashed out off of the school campus when Yukimura dismissed the Rikkai tennis team from practice. A whole list of errands that he needed to complete ran through his head as he ran, tennis bag bouncing on his back, schoolbag bouncing on his hip. He hadn't even had the time to say a proper goodbye to his teammates, instead tossing a quick wave to Jackal and a lightning-fast bop on the head for Kirihara. There wasn't even time to respond to Niou's jabs at his haste, he was already off and running down the road, a trail of dust in his wake.

The line for buying a subway ticket was too long. Marui wheeled around and flew back up to ground level, nearly choking on his gum in the process. He made it just in time for the bus, and hopped on, depositing his fare money and waiting impatiently for the bus to get to his stop.

He was a whirlwind that moved off of the bus and into the shop that he had selected. Regular people on the streets stopped to stare at him, blink owlishly for a few seconds, and then leap out of the way when they saw him heading towards them.

_Number one: buy a camera and film._

Marui, clutching his new camera tightly in his hands, wasted ten minutes of his preciously tight time looking for extra film (he didn't quite have enough pocket money for a digital camera). When he found it, he got in line for the cash register, paying quickly and then rushing out. Time didn't stop for anyone, not even a tensai like him. Nor would he be able to get those wasted minutes back, so he would just have to be faster. Thankfully Yukimura had let him eat more sugar than usual during practice.

_Number two: grocery shopping for Kaa-san and myself._

He gave the friendly lady behind the cash register in the grocery store a wave before he was a blur as he ran to do his shopping, grabbing a shopping cart in the process. Carrots. Potatoes. Celery. Tomatoes. Apples and strawberries and-oh! Blueberries were on sale!-a cucumber. Flour. Sugar. Did Kaa-san say she wanted salt? Marui glanced down at the list his mother had given him and confirmed that salt was wanted, so into the cart it went. A box of cookies joined the rest for his little brothers. A bag of candy and several more packs of gum went in for him (no doubt he would have to share his candy with two little brothers, but if he could keep the gum, all was well).

"My! Marui-kun is so fast today!" the friendly lady said to him as she rang up his purchases and bagged them for him.

Marui grinned, blowing a bubble with his current piece of gum, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah! I promised a very important person that we'd so something special today. We don't get to see each other a lot, so I want to spend as much time with him as I can."

She chuckled, nodding and handing him his bags after he had paid. "Have a nice time with your friend!" she called after him as he charged out of the store. He yelled a cheerful answer back to her.

_Number three: bake cookies and don't burn them._

He didn't burn them, which made him very proud. Neither did he break anything in the kitchen, which made him prouder and saved him from a severe scolding from his mother. He did, however, have to surrender several cookies for his brothers, despite the box that he had bought for them, but after counting several times he assured himself that he had enough cookies to ensure that there were still enough for the rest of his afternoon to go smoothly. "I'm off," he yelled, jamming his feet into his sneakers and giving one of his brother's an affectionate tousle of the hair before leaving the house, holding his bag of cookies like it was gold and having the camera dangle merrily from his wrist via a string he had tied to it.

_Number four: go to park and find Jiroh._

The orange-haired boy wasn't exactly too hard to find. The two boys had set up a rendezvous site earlier on, at the bench that faced the largest fountain in the middle of the park. Marui grinned as he trotted towards it, seeing the other's figure curled up on it as he caught up on some last minute sleep, no doubt. "Yo!" he called enthusiastically.

He wasn't all that disturbed when Jiroh took a while to wake up and thus didn't answer him immediately. "I made cookies," he offered, showing the other boy the treats. "They're my first batch that's not burnt!"

Jiroh laughed as he took a cookie, biting down happily into it, swinging his legs like a child. When they were gone, Marui stood, stretching himself and grabbing Jiroh by the hand.

"Let's go!" he said, folding up the paper bag that had served as cookie carrier and tucking it away into his pocket (he would recycle it, later). "Great things await us!" This prompted another laugh from Jiroh as the two took off, twin laughing bullets. The camera changed hands several times in the process as they snapped pictures.

_Ah…? What was number five?_

"Marui-kun~!" Marui snapped out of his musings about what his forgotten fifth item for his checklist was to see Jiroh waving excitedly at him. "Hurry up! We have a lot of memories to make!"

Marui grinned widely, running towards him. "We do," he said brightly. "We can make lots of memories together." And, so saying, he plucked the camera from Jiroh and promptly took a picture of the two of them.

* * *

A/N: Personally, I like AtoJiroh better. But MaruiJiroh is sweet, too. :)

Oreos and milk for **review**? Thank you!


	11. Drive

**_Theme 11 – Drive  
Pairing: ShishidoOhtori [Silver Pair]_**

Shishido's sword slashed down, an arc of silver, slicing at the thorny vines that seemed to have a life on their own, and that were intent on strangling the lives out of him and his fellow comrades. He couldn't even find the time or the energy to curse under his breath, instead having to focus everything to simply defend himself.

It bugged him, since he was so used to moving forward… to attacking instead of defending.

He could see Oshitari, with his huge heavy blade, hacking away for all he was worth. Shishido was briefly, very briefly, amused at the fact that he managed to keep his glasses on his face. And then he was back to madly defending himself from those persistent thorns that waved dangerously in front of his eyes.

Somewhere, he didn't quite know where exactly, he could hear Atobe cursing as he moved along. Sometimes, when Shishido wasn't being totally assaulted by these ruthless plants, he would spare some of his brainpower from his exhausted brain and wonder what drove Atobe to fight so hard. He didn't have anyone waiting for him behind this barrier of thorns. The rest of them didn't, either. Shishido had one, although he didn't know how long that person would wait, or if he was still there on the other side, for that matter.

A flash of silver, and Shishido looked down to see a twitching section of vine spazzing at his feet. "Thanks," he grunted to Jiroh, who simply yawned and swung his sword in the other direction so that he could go back to back with Hiyoshi.

An opening appeared in the thorns and Shishido gestured for the rest of his team to go through before he did. They did, and Shishido followed soon after, giving a few last hacks at those hated plants as he went.

It was quiet beyond the plants. Deathly so. Atobe ordered them all in a few curt words to take a break and try to regain as much energy as possible. They might have had peace then but no one knew how long it would last. Wearily, they slumped to the ground, while Shishido made his way over to Atobe.

"Do you need something?" Atobe asked, frowning up at him as Shishido sat himself down with a 'plunk' next to the man. "Ore-sama is not in the mood to entertain meaningless questions."

Shishido twitched. Meaningless? He decided to not answer to that and instead go one with what he had originally intended to ask. "Atobe, why do you fight, when there is nothing for you in it?"

Atobe tipped his head to one side as he regarded Shishido with critical gray-blue eyes. "You expect Ore-sama to answer that question?" he asked. Stubbornly, Shishido nodded, pulling out a rag and beginning to wipe his blade with it.

Likewise, Atobe did the same as he composed his answer. "Ore-sama… does not believe that one needs to have a physical award for accomplishing tasks," he said at length, giving one final wipe of the shiny steel before stowing away the cloth rag and sheathing his sword for later use.

He paused and shifted his gaze to the plants which, for those which had fought so hard against them moments ago, now protected them. "Shishido, why do _you_ fight? What is your motivation?"

Shishido blinked, and then he ran a hand through his brown hair. "Me?" he asked, frowning as he thought about it. "I fight because I have someone waiting for me on the other side."

"If you didn't have that person, would you still finish a fight that was started?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but paused to give it considerable thought. "Yes," he said finally. "Yes, I would." And then he heaved a sigh and a small half-smile crossed his face. If he didn't have that person waiting on the other side for him, he would still try to finish a task, because when it was finished, he would have a smile that was as bright as sunshine to go back to; could go back to a soft, 'Shishido-san, I'm glad you're back;' could feel soft strands of silver hair between his fingers when Choutarou had helped him stash away all of his heavy armor.

Even if Choutarou had not been waiting on the other side of this field of thorny plants with a mind of their own, and Shishido had been fighting still, he would have continued on, because seeing Choutarou again was his motivation.

Atobe smirked. "We fight not because we have anything physical to gain from it… not because we can gain something we can see or touch. We fight because we can protect those things that we can't take with us by doing so. That, Shishido, is why we fight when we have no one on the other side waiting for us."

And Shishido had nodded, satisfied with what his captain had told him, because motivation wasn't anything physical that had a set worth. Smiles from the people he cared about could not be bought. Mountains of riches from successful campaigns couldn't ever take the place of having someone tell him that they were glad he was safe and actually mean it, especially in that way that Choutarou said it. Never, never.

"So, Shishido." Oshitari sauntered over and sat down next to Atobe. "What's your motivation?"

His reply came without hesitation. "Choutarou." It was Choutarou with his smiles and his sweet laughs and those shining gray eyes.

For it was Choutarou which drove Shishido forward, if not his actual person, than those qualities about him that made him the person he was. It had always been him; Shishido's drive had always been Choutarou.

And it always would be.

* * *

A/N: Somehow... no matter how I wrote this... it just doesn't work that well. *sighs* But I tried. That counts for something, right? Sorry if they're a bit OOC...

**Review** for a slice of german cake? Thank you!


	12. Smile

**_Theme 12 – Smile  
Pairing: OishiEiji [Golden Pair]_**

"Eiji! What on earth _happened_ here?"

The apartment that Oishi had stepped into was a mess; it looked like a hurricane had passed, and then a tornado had gone through it right after (because tornadoes sometimes came after hurricanes, Oishi knew). Oishi could immediately see one of his roommate's favorite sweaters thrown over the back of one of the chairs around the table, several pairs of pants and a few shirts strewn over the sofa, single socks without their appropriate partners all over the floor. And all among the clothes were papers, which if Oishi stepped closer to examine, could see were said roommate's homework papers that were either halfway completed or entirely blank.

Oishi heaved a sigh, shaking his head in exasperation. That Eiji… some things about people never did seem to change, no matter how much time had passed. Even now, Eiji still held that extreme dislike of doing homework. How it was that Eiji managed to do so well in school (mostly straight A's, as Eiji was fond of telling him) Oishi didn't know.

Still shaking his head, the black-haired young man started gathering the papers and putting them into a pile, setting them on the kitchen table for the meantime so that he could pick up the clothing. Folding them neatly over his arm, he wondered if he should risk venturing through the side hallway of their shared apartment to Eiji's room and return said articles of clothing to their respective drawers.

Heaving another sigh, he started for the bedroom, praying to whichever god that reigned in the high heavens that he would not meet his death by tripping over something or another that Eiji had, no doubt, thrown carelessly onto the floor (Oishi quite liked having his life with him as he went about).

He gave the door a single knock out of sheer politeness before stepping in, only to have a muffled scream sound and then a pillow landing in his face. "Don't come in, Oishi!" he could hear Eiji cry out as the pillow slid from his face and became another thing adding to the mess on the floor of the room. "Don't… don't… ah! This is terrible!"

Oishi had a look of pure and hopelessly lost confusion. "Eiji…?" he ventured forth, staring at the red-haired young man who was perched on the bed amid a pile of clothes, more school papers, and other assorted junk, a look that was something between perplexed, horrified, and confused on his face. Instantly worried, Oishi asked something that went along the lines of, "Eiji, what's wrong?" except for the fact that it came out muffled and hard to understand because Eiji had thrown another pillow in his face.

"Gah! Oishi, I told you not to come in!" Eiji wailed, looking childishly indignant, searching for another pillow to throw. But since Oishi had a pillow in his face, he couldn't see this look on Eiji, and since that pillow was the last one on Eiji's bed, Eiji had nothing left to throw at him (the first pillow having not displayed magical properties to walk back to Eiji).

"Eiji, honestly speaking, what _are _you doing?" Oishi asked, his voice bordering exasperation as he peeled the pillow off of his face and frowned at his roommate. "I know you're not the neatest person in the world, but the mess you made in the living room today was beyond what you normally do."

He waded cautiously over to Eiji, pushing aside Eiji's self-made nest and sitting down on the bed next to him. Noticing the other's quivering bottom lip, he reached out and patted Eiji gently on the arm. The red-head only gnawed harder on his lip, looking worried.

Suddenly, though, Eiji whipped around to face Oishi, something akin to desperation in his indigo eyes. "Oishi!" he wailed, grabbing the man by the arms and shaking him. To say Oishi was surprised was an understatement. He was stunned speechless, staring at Eiji like this was the first time he was seeing him.

"E-eiji…?" he ventured forth, blinking.

Eiji studied him for a moment, quiet as he contemplated. The way the other was built, with his strong chest and those warm arms, the way those green eyes twinkled, the way he was always so selfless and looking out for others before looking after himself… there was a lot about Oishi that appealed to other people.

And frankly speaking, that worried Eiji. If Oishi was so… wonderful (for lack of better word to properly describe him)… than what was Eiji? What was good about Kikumaru Eiji?

"Oishi, what's the best thing about me?"

"Huh?" was Oishi's intelligent answer, but Eiji didn't seem to mind. Instead, he just repeated his question, waiting as patiently as he could for Oishi to answer him.

"Well…" Oishi frowned slightly as he thought. Honestly, why would Eiji ask such a question so randomly? "Eiji is very lively. He always looks on the bright side of things."

Eiji drooped. That had been what Oishi had told him years ago, when they still played tennis for the Seigaku Tennis Team that they so loved. It had been spoken in the sense of friends, and it still was to this day. Eiji had hoped, against all hopes, that this time there would be something deeper, especially since upon full inspection of himself, he found himself liking his former doubles partner in a different sense than friendship.

_Nya… to Oishi I probably **am** only his friend,_ Eiji thought sadly, hugging his knees to his chest. _But it would have been nice to hear him say that there was something about me that he just couldn't live without. _Indigo eyes closed as he rested his chin on his knees. _It would have been really, really nice…_

Too late, he realized Oishi had been saying something. Embarrassed, his cheeks getting a light dusting of pink on them, his head shot up. "I'm sorry, Oishi! I didn't hear what you said!" he apologized hurriedly.

Oishi simply chuckled. "It's alright. You probably would have thought me strange if you had heard, anyway," he said easily, taking Eiji's clothes that were still over his arm and placing them on his bed before standing up. "I'll go make dinner, and you should clean up that mess in the front room," he said, moving for the door.

Eiji's hesitant voice stopped him just as his hand touched the doorknob. "If it's Oishi… I won't think you're strange…" Eiji offered shyly, which surprised Oishi. Eiji was rarely shy; he just wasn't that kind of person.

Oishi gave a faint shrug of his shoulders. "Smile, Eiji," he said. Eiji looked up at him, surprised. "Eiji's smile… that's the best part of Eiji."

A soft smile stole across Oishi's face. He had always loved Eiji's smile. It was so bright, so cheery, so warm, that it was hard _not _to like. And somewhere along the way, his liking of Eiji's smile had turned into liking for Eiji himself. It was hard for Oishi to imagine his life without Eiji's sunny smile.

"I hope that Eiji's smile will stay with me forever," he said, and slipped out of the room, and it was not until later on that Eiji realized that that was a confession, a strange one, but a confession no less.

And when he realized that, Eiji wore the biggest, happiest smile that he had ever made on his face.

* * *

A/N: Apparently, if you listen closely to animes, often one character will refer to another by the name and not 'he' or 'she' or even sometimes 'you' as in the English language. That's why Oishi keeps speaking to Eiji like that. Just thought I'd make that clear (or not so clear, depending on how you process it). Yay for useless footnotes!

Oh, yes... I'm taking requests. All you need to do is in your review place which pairing you want to read about, and I will try to write a one-shot about them and a theme as soon as possible (it might take a while, since my oh-so-creative mind is working slowly these past few days and I'm trying to finish summer homework before school starts XD Procrastination...) The only requirements are that all members in the pairings must be in either Seigaku, Hyoutei, or Rikkai (members from other schools can be used in past tense way, though... like Fuji x Saeki turned to Fuji x Tezuka).

Banana Split for **reviews**? Thank you!


	13. Insanity

**_Theme 13 – Insanity  
Pairing: AtobeOshitari_**

Atobe frowned at the mass of dark blue hair before him, contemplating it for a moment before he could remember and tell himself that it was a terrible thing to frown… that it was unbecoming for a face as glorious as his. After all, frowns brought upon unsightly wrinkles, and Atobe did not need wrinkles. Absolutely, positively, not (for Tezuka's own sake, Atobe hoped that the captain of the Seigaku tennis team would stop frowning. After all, who knew how many wrinkles _he_ would get? He never seemed to stop frowning, even when giving compliments).

The mass of blue in front of him suddenly moved, and Atobe found himself staring down at dark blue eyes through two round pieces of glass. There was a displeased look in those eyes that made Atobe's frown deepen. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

The owner of those blue eyes shrugged, jamming his hands into his pockets and once again turning around so that he could stare straight forward. "Atobe," he said finally, and Atobe tilted his head to one side, making a slight sound in his throat to tell him to go on. "Say, Atobe, what kind of relationship is this, the one that we have…?"

"Ore-sama does not understand what you are asking, Oshitari."

Oshitari turned once again to face Atobe, although he never removed his hands from his pockets. "What I'm saying is… what exactly are we getting out of this?" The boy's usually impassive face was lined with frustration, which surprised Atobe, as never before had he seen frustration on that boy's face. Irritation, yes. Anger, yes. Scorn and sympathy and even mirth at times, yes, but never frustration. "We say we're together, but the only use of that term is when we do studying. We say we're a couple, but we never hold hands, never hug, never kiss. Hell, I'd even say you were _frightened_ of me! Or perhaps disgusted that you are 'with' someone like me?" As he spoke, Atobe watched Oshitari's expression darken until he looked fit burst, his voice rising as he spoke.

But at the last minute, Oshitari caught himself and regained his composure, sighing and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "What I'm trying to say is that I don't understand you, I don't understand _this_." he turned away from Atobe once more and heaved another sigh. "I guess I just need a bit of time to sort this out. See you at practice tomorrow, Atobe," he said simply, walking away.

At first, those words hadn't meant much to Atobe. They had turned over in his head when he lay at night in his bed, they had been there enough to gnaw at his consciousness, but the actual meaning of those words had escaped him. It hadn't bothered him; he functioned just as well as he had before, although he did notice that Oshitari seemed tenser than usual, his movements were just a bit less graceful ever-so-slightly (only his Insight had been able to pick it up).

A week later, though, Atobe and his brilliant mind had finally worked through the kinks of what Oshitari had meant. But after he had figured it out, Atobe had frowned, not quite getting why the blue-haired boy was getting so worked up about it. Atobe had always assumed that Oshitari wasn't the kind for public displays, and each time Atobe had invited the other boy over there was usually something going on in the Oshitari household.

So… it wasn't his entire fault, Atobe decided.

A month passed, and the two generally avoided each other. By now, Oshitari was back to his fluid grace on and off the courts, Atobe watching quietly from the sidelines as he observed his team work through their matches. Blue-gray eyes narrowed, though, when he saw Oshitari kid around with Gakuto. Lately, it seemed, everything the redhead did had a certain appeal to Oshitari, and thus Oshitari would respond accordingly.

Atobe didn't know why, but it annoyed him, watching those two at their antics. He had half a mind of changing the lineup for the next tournament, but Hiyoshi had gotten himself injured while at his family's dojo earlier and he was the only one Atobe cared to pair up with Gakuto (they were a strong team and had the potential to win, he told himself, and he was defiantly not doing this because he wanted Gakuto away from Oshitari).

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?" he growled low in his throat when he had cornered Oshitari in the clubroom after everyone else had left, pinning the other's shoulders against the wall to prevent escape. "Ore-sama does not like being played with; you should know that quite well."

"I don't like being played with, either, Atobe."

"So you decide to drive Ore-sama crazy?" Atobe lashed out. "You intend to bring Ore-sama to the brink of insanity as a little revenge game?" Something inside of the diva was threatening to snap, and that could herald disastrous results. It was a good thing, then, that Oshitari was a back-up player in the up-coming tournament.

Oshitari watched him, an air of calm around him as compared to Atobe's barely suppressed rage. "Did it work?" he asked nonchalantly. "An insane Atobe would be a sight to see."

Atobe glared at him for a few more moments, before he sighed. "Well, then, Ore-sama will have to disappoint you," he grunted, letting go of Oshitari's shoulders and turning to leave the room, "because Ore-sama does not go insane."

"Liar," Oshitari retorted. "I see the way you look at us, Gakuto and me. I see how you want to march over and just rip Gakuto away to the other side of the courts and make him play against Shishido or something of the like. You _were_ insane, then, insanely jealous. Don't lie, Atobe, I know you were."

His voice suddenly got strangely hoarse, hoarse and thick, and Atobe could feel the disappointment seeping from Hyoutei's resident genius. "Why couldn't you just _see_?" Oshitari demanded. "Why couldn't you see, why couldn't you have used your Insight?" Oshitari pushed past him, marching out the door and towards his home.

_Some Insight if you couldn't understand, _he thought bitterly._ You drive me crazy when you're not paying me any attention. _He took a deep breath to steady himself, going through the familiar movement of pushing up his glasses.

_You drive me insane when you're not with me._

* * *

A/N: Do they teach enbu at a dojo...? Or am I just misleading myself...?

And this... I guess it's something like Oshitari wants affection but Atobe is not quite willing to give it. Notice how our beloved diva is making excuses to himself and how Oshitari goes out of his way to make Atobe jealous. :)

Cream puffs for **reviews**? Thank you!


	14. Silence

**_Theme 14 – Silence  
Pairing: YukimuraFuji_**

Yukimura pushed himself carefully up so that he was in a sitting position on his bed. He had been lying on that narrow hospital bed for so long that his muscles were beginning to twitch, feeling restless even though the nurse had told him to go to sleep. But he had slept well last night, not waking up even once with cramps or pains as he usually did, and so he didn't see why the nurse was making him sleep more.

Shifting cautiously in his bed, the boy tested out his muscles gingerly, afraid that any sudden movement would cause that searing pain he had grown almost accustomed to over the weeks of being hospitalized to come back. They were sharper than the first time he had been sick, piercing his sides, his arms, his legs, rendering him helpless and vulnerable and weak. He hated it. Yukimura hated relapses.

But most of all, he hated how the hospital had gotten so much quieter than the first time he had been there. The children who often trotted to his room and begged for him to play with them had been discharged after successful operations or rehabilitations. He had specifically told his team to not visit him and instead concentrate of their exams; they were going through a critical period in their school lives. So he was alone for the majority of his second hospital stay, in the quiet of his stark white room.

The silence was deafening.

The door to his hospital room suddenly opened with a soft clicking sound, and Yukimura looked up to see a lithe honey-haired boy slipping into the room. His visitor's hands were behind his back, and he nudged the door shut with his foot, looking for all the world like he was plotting something but wanted everyone to think he was innocent.

If Yukimura had not known him better he would have believed that face, perhaps. But as it was, he simply raised an eyebrow, greeting his visitor as the other boy made himself comfortable in a chair at his bedside.

"Fuji, what did you to this time?" Yukimura asked.

Fuji's angelic face adopted a look of hurt. "I did absolutely nothing!" the genius of Seigaku protested. "What did I ever do to make you think that way?" And then Fuji proceeded to lament about how he was being unjustly accused, but Yukimura noticed that Fuji still stubbornly kept both hands behind his back.

"What are you holding behind your back?" he asked, and Fuji was forced to let loose a defeated sigh, revealing his secret to the blue-haired boy.

Fuji produced a fuzzy brown teddy bear from behind his back, his smile widening slightly and becoming a bit brighter. "Here you go!" he said, handing the fuzzy gift to his bedridden friend. Yukimura took it into his lap, opening the card that Fuji had attached to the pretty blue ribbon that was around the bear's neck.

"'To my favorite hospital inmate,'" he read, and a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "Hospital inmate? You make me sound like I'm insane or something, Fuji." Fuji laughed at that, reaching up and patting the bear on the head. Yukimura gazed at his new possession proudly before giving his visitor a curious look. "But why do I get a bear?" he asked curiously. "I mean, I like it and all, but don't you think that this is a bit… random… even by your standards?"

Fuji shrugged. "Really? I never thought about it that way," he admitted. "My sister dragged me to go shopping with her, and I saw him sitting on the shelf. He looked so adorable… but sad because he was alone. I thought I'd take him out of his misery and give him a loving home."

He gave Yukimura a soft smile. "And besides, didn't you confess last time that you hated being alone in your hospital room and that you hated it being silent? I thought…" Fuji trailed off, a thoughtful expression on his face before he resumed with his train of thought. "I thought that he could keep you company. He can't talk and all, so it will still be silent, but at least you'll know that you're not alone and all that. You know, for when I can't visit you or something."

_'You know what, Fuji? I hate being here, in this room, and not because I'm sick. It's because I can't stand it… not being able to see someone asides from the occasional visitor during visitor hours. It's so very, very quiet and I'm so very, very alone…'_

Yukimura raised his eyebrows. "You… took those words to heart?" he whispered, surprise evident on his delicate features.

"I take all your words to heart," was Fuji's immediate response, and against Yukimura's best efforts, he could not help his face from heating up. So he had even taken_ that_ seriously…

Fuji gave a little chuckle as he watched Yukimura hug his new bear to his chest. "So… what are you going to name him? He's very happy to have met you, I'm sure, but he would be even happier to be given a name of his very own."

Yukimura considered for a minute, stroking the bear's soft fur. "I'll name him… Syusuke," he said finally, looking down at his lap for a few moments before raising his head and flashing a sunny smile to Fuji. "That way, it'll be like you're visiting me everyday, and I won't just have to wait for visiting hours."

_'Can I tell you something, Fuji? I really like it when you visit me. It's like the room gets all sunny all of sudden. And something inside me just feels light and happy all of a sudden every time you walk in that door. I can't quite explain it… but I think… I might like you._

_'Is that okay?'_

"Is it okay, if I call him Syusuke?" Yukimura asked, suddenly looking nervous.

Fuji tilted his head to one side, looking puzzled. "Why wouldn't it be okay?" he asked, until realization dawned on him. He stood, giving the clock a passing glance as he did so. He needed to be going; Yumiko was expecting him at home. "Of course it's okay," he said, redirecting his attention to Yukimura and giving him a special little smile, "Naming the bear Syusuke and… the other topic."

He started for the door. "I'll try to visit you again, soon," he promised, flashing another smile at the other boy before he let himself out of the room. Yukimura raised a hand in farewell before the door clicked shut and Fuji vanished behind a wall of white.

That night, when Yukimura woke up with pains in his side and realized that it was eerily silent in his room and that no one was there for him to talk to, he pulled Syusuke close to him, hugging the bear for all he was worth. "It's okay, it's okay," he whispered fiercely to himself, stroking the soft fur as the pains continued and finally dulled down, leaving him exhausted. "It's okay," he breathed, loosening his grip so that Syusuke could breathe.

A soft smile crossed his face as he pressed a light kiss on Syusuke's button nose. "It's okay because I have you, and you are a promise that the silence won't stay."

* * *

A/N: You know... once upon a time... it was on task with the theme. Then... it diverged and went on another path for a merry little walk. And finally... I dragged it back (I hope) to the original theme.

But I like teddy bears, and I like it when people give other people teddy bears, and I like recieving teddy bears, so it's all good. :)

Frozen yogurt for **reviews**? I'm not getting quite as many as I would like... is something wrong with my writing or is it the pairings or do you guys have problems with my food stuffs? *coughbribescough* Either way... reviews would be nice... ^_^


	15. Misfortune

**_Theme 15 – Misfortune  
Paiaring: MaruiNiou_**

Marui decided that he was a very, very unfortunate soul in the big, big world. Yes, he was very, very, very unfortunate.

The redhead and self-proclaimed genius of Rikkai had been settled down peacefully in his living room, intent on spending his afternoon munching his way through his new pile of sweets that he had just bought the previous day and finishing the last of his summer homework before summer break drew to a close and he would have to return to school. Simple, right? Very organized and planned out, right? Of course it was.

Marui had worked his way through his English assignment in the first two hours (it took him a half hour longer than usual because his cousin had called him, and the two had engaged in a spirited conversation before Marui remembered his homework and hung up, albeit reluctantly). His Japanese and his History papers took about forty-five minutes to an hour each, and he had had no distractions while he worked through them.

His descent to being an unfortunate little Marui started just fifteen minutes into his math homework. The doorbell had rang, and since there was no one else in the house who could answer it (his mother had taken both of his little brothers to the doctor's appointment just five minutes earlier, and his father was away on a business trip and wouldn't be back until sometime next week) Marui had torn himself quite happily away from his math homework and went to get the door.

"Yo!" he offered cheerfully, opening the front door.

"Oi," was the answer that he received before his visitor pushed past him and entered the house. "Did you miss me?"

Marui frowned as the silver-haired boy that was his boyfriend walked past him, toeing off his shoes and setting his back down on the ground next to the stairs. "Niou, we saw each other, like, yesterday at tennis practice," he said drily, wondering why the other boy was over when he, too, had homework to finish. "Anyways, whatever you're here for, you better make it quick. I still have to finish my math assignment."

Niou raised a fine eyebrow. "That? You didn't finish it yet? It's easy…"

Marui stuck his tongue out impulsively at him. "Well, I'm sorry! Some of us aren't as gifted in math as you are!"

"Really? Glad to hear you complimenting me," Niou said simply. "It's really quiet here, today."

Marui shrugged. "What did you expect? Everyone's busy today, so I thought it would be perfect to finish my homework."

It was a bad idea to say that, Marui discovered about three seconds later, when he saw that gleam in Niou's blue eyes. The Trickster of Rikkai rubbed his chin in a contemplative manner, appearing to be muffling laughs yet still appearing rather serious.

"You're not going to finish," Niou finally said, grabbing his bag and slinging it over the couch in the living room, casting a quick glance over Marui's homework papers before letting himself fall backwards onto the couch. "Not today, at least." A mischievous grin crossed Niou's face as he glanced up at Marui, and the redhead debated with himself whether or not it was worth arguing over. When Niou got _that _look in his eyes, and when all of his actions and words implied _that_, Marui was pretty much defeated.

But still, being the stubborn person that he was, he decided to argue and put in his two cent's worth. "My math homework is going to get finished today, no matter what. You can help me."

Niou's smile widened; he always liked it when Marui put up some resistance. It was so much more fun than if Marui just agreed. He stood and maneuvered himself behind his boyfriend, purring into his ear. "But Bun-chan~~!" he whined, "I came all the way over here!" Perhaps he should call Marui the standard 'ball of fat.' The fireworks that were to follow would be interesting, that was for certain.

"No," was Marui's flat answer as he sat down on the floor and picked up his pencil.

Niou followed suit, pondering whether or not to go with the name-calling tactic, until his blue eyes fell on Marui's pencil, which the redhead was gnawing on as he looked over his math questions. Deciding that there wouldn't be enough time to employ that tactic, he leaned over just as Marui's pencil left his mouth to write down the answer to the problem, catching those soft lips with his own.

A satisfied smile crossed the Trickster's face as he heard the pencil fall to the table. However, it soon turned to a unhappy scowl as Marui pushed him away, muttering a firm, "_Today_," complete with emphasis, and reached to pick up the pencil again. Growling, Niou grabbed the hand before it could close on the pencil, flipping the redhead over so that he was on his back, with Niou positioned on top of him.

"_No_," he hissed, with just as much emphasis.

And Marui could only sigh miserably to himself from where he was pinned to the floor. It really did look like his math homework wouldn't get finished today… he would definitely be an unfortunate soul tomorrow at school, when he had no completed assignment to hand in.

"Do you know how much trouble you cause me?" Marui breathed, reaching up a hand lazily so that his fingers could play with white bangs (it always surprised him how soft Niou's hair was, despite the obvious amount of bleach the other boy used for it). "I've heard of black cats of misfortune before, but you're the first white one I've seen."

Niou grinned impishly. "I'm one-of-a-kind, made especially for a certain person," he answered smoothly. "Don't you feel special? You have your own white cat of misfortune." Marui made a half agreeing, half laughing noise in the back of his throat.

"And you'd best forget about your math homework; it's not going to get done today."

"Obviously."

"And stop thinking that you're so unfortunate. Face it; it's not as bad as you think, right?"

Marui's lavender eyes stared up at Niou, wide. "What, are you physic, now?"

"No. It was just obvious from the look on your face." Marui pouted, but said nothing. After all, in the end, Niou would always win.

"If all misfortunes came from you, I'd like to be the most unfortunate person in the world," Marui mumbled, closing lavender orbs and relaxing his body on the floor.

Above him, Niou laughed softly, trailing a finger lazily over Marui's cheek. "But of course," he purred. "You only need to ask."

Marui decided that he was a very, very unfortunate person, but he was probably the happiest one someone would ever see. A small smirk crossed his face as his eyes opened again and he looked up at Niou.

"Do it."

* * *

A/N: Ermm.... epic fail and fried brain from AP World homework and implied lemon? I is a failure. But I do like MaruixNiou. :)

**Review** for a slice ocornbread! Thank you very much!


	16. Questioning

**_Theme 16 – Questioning  
Paiaring: FujiEiji [Dream Pair]_**

Eiji couldn't stand it any longer.

He had tried, though. He had really, really tried. Every five minutes or so he was telling himself that he must be patient, that he must simply wait, that things would work out in the end. They always had before.

But this time, something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. Eiji knew this, Tezuka knew this, Oishi knew this, everyone on their team knew this (even his favorite O'chibi, who was usually so immersed with tennis that he noticed nothing else). Of course, it was hard not to know this if it had been happening for two weeks already.

Oishi had told him to wait on the sidelines, had told him to watch and wait. 'We can only offer support,' the mother hen of Seigaku had said, drawing his doubles partner gently away from the clubroom's door, from where inside both could hear the muffled sounds of sobbing. 'He needs to do everything else; we cannot do it for him.'

Eiji had looked helplessly at the door but had let Oishi lead him to the tennis courts. Once there, Oishi left him to go talk to Tezuka and Inui, and Eiji knew something was terribly, terribly wrong from the way that Tezuka fully turned his attention from the first years (who he was helping with their swings) to Oishi and from the way that Inui did not reach immediately for his notebook and how his glasses didn't glint.

The normally cheerful acrobat stood there by the mesh fence, looking worried and troubled and wringing his hands. It must have been a sight to see; Momo made a comment about how it made him look like an old lady and Eiji had no reaction to it, simply wringing them some more (any other time he would have laughed it off and made some joke about it, or perhaps had pestered Momo and then guilt-tripped him into paying for afterschool burgers). Every now and then his big, indigo eyes would dart to the clubroom door, his mind willing it to open so that he could see his friend walk out, smile in place, and when he saw Eiji standing there wringing his hands he'd laugh and make some comment to go along with Momo's.

The clubroom door _did _open, and his friend _did_ come out, but asides from those two bits that were like what Eiji envisioned in his mind, everything else was different. "Fujiko…" Eiji murmured, and despite his voice being so small, every one of the Regulars heard him, and turned towards the clubroom to see Fuji walk slowly and quietly towards them. There was varying degrees of worry on each of their faces, but it was there, nonetheless.

"I apologize for my tardiness, Tezuka," Fuji said softly, giving a quick dip of his head. Tezuka simply let out a 'Hn,' and did not assign Fuji laps. Eiji was thankful; the last thing he wanted to see was his poor friend running thirty-some laps around the tennis courts while his eyes were still red and puffy.

"Kikumaru, warm up with Fuji," Tezuka said, turning to Eiji, who gave his captain a smart nod. "Keep it to a light rally."

"Yes, Tezuka, nya!" Eiji replied, and before Fuji could protest the redhead had grabbed the petit brunet by the wrist and was dragging him to the farthest court. "Ne, ne, Fujiko!" Eiji chattered brightly, trying his hardest to make Fuji smile like he usually did (Eiji had never ever thought before that he would be so freaked out by the fact that Fuji wasn't smiling), but his efforts got no reaction.

Their light rally was basically a light rally, which annoyed and puzzled Eiji. Always before, whenever Tezuka had told them to do a light rally, they'd end up having a full-blown match. Now, Fuji didn't even look like he wanted to hold his racket in his hand and hit the little yellow ball.

"Fujiko… what's wrong?" Eiji wailed, leaping over the net and going over to him. He had ended their supposed-to-be rally a few minutes ago since it was obvious that neither of them had the heart to play. "Fujiko… talk to me, nya!" he begged, kneeling down in front of the genius and placing his hands on the other's shoulders, big eyes begging for an answer, for Fuji to tell him to do something, _anything_.

"I was a fool," Fuji said suddenly, causing Eiji to blink and stare at his friend in surprise. Fuji's mouth was drawn into a hard line and his head was bent towards the ground. "And yet I still qualify for a genius. It makes me laugh." A dry, humorless chuckle that was nothing at all like Fuji's usual laughs escaped his throat.

Fuji lifted his head so that he could look Eiji in the eyes, and Eiji's breath caught in his throat. He had never before seen Fuji's eyes open in which they showed absolutely no malice in them before. It was… strange, freaky, a bit scary, but most of all, it was stunning.

Eiji had never known how _blue_ those eyes were.

"Why, Eiji?" Fuji's voice brought him back to reality before Eiji's mind could run away from him (Eiji was quite thankful, actually). "Why does this happen when you think that everything is going so wonderfully?" Those eyes looked at Eiji, begging for an answer that could mend all of his hurts.

Eiji swallowed nervously; counseling had really never been his strong point, after all. "I think…" he started, and then hesitated, voice faltering. "I think… that there's nothing concrete in love," he finally said, slowly, weighing the words out in his mind before he spoke. "Nothing is set… there are so many questions and we can never find all of the answers." Like, for instance, how did one mend a broken heart? Eiji desperately wanted to know the answer to that one.

"I think that if someone dumps you, then you just need to forget about them and move on!" he suddenly announced, rather loudly, jumping to his feet, a determined expression on his face, successfully managing to draw the attention of everyone else on the courts. "Yeah! That's it! Forget and move forward!"

"It's 'forgive and forget', Eiji."

"Eh?" The redhead blinked, glancing down at his friend. Fuji was smiling, chuckling slightly behind one hand. Eiji let out a squeak and pounced on him, giving Fuji the biggest hug he could muster ('I hope he doesn't strange Fuji…' Oishi murmured nervously from the other end of the courts).

"Nya, Fujiko…" Eiji purred, only loosening his grip by a fraction when Fuji tapped lightly on his shoulder. "I don't care if it's 'forgive and forget' or 'forget and move on.' As long as Fujiko-chan is happy everything's perfectly fine!" A sunny smile was on his face and everyone could have sworn a cat's tail was swaying happily behind him. "So… if Fujiko needs any help with anything, I'll try to answer all of Fujiko's questions!"

Fuji cocked his head to one side to the best of his ability, thinking this over. "Really?" he asked.

"Really!"

"Then… can someone fall in love again right after their heart's been broken?"

Eiji gave Fuji a look that said 'Are you stupid?' and nodded vigorously. "Of course, of course! There's no rule, is there?"

"Good," Fuji said, picking himself up from the ground, "because I think I just fell again." And then, before everyone on the Seigaku Boy's Tennis Team, Fuji Syusuke leaned towards Eiji Kikumaru and pressed a soft, sweet kiss on his cheek.

* * *

A/N:I can't believe that I haven't written a Dream Pair drabble yet. I really don't see how that happened... Dream Pair is another one of my favorites. I think I shall blame school and bugs and summer heat for that (although it's not so hot out anymore... *sighs*)

**Reviews** for a slice of lemon pie? Pie is good... :)


	17. Blood

**_Theme 17 – Blood  
Pairing: KiriharaOC_**

Saruwatari Chiaki sat in the branches of a tree, hugging her knees to her chest as best she could in that limited amount of space. It was strange… she could have sworn that the area that the branches of these trees was bigger. Perhaps it was because the last time she had been up in one was when she was little, and thus, much smaller, or perhaps it was simply because she was having such a bad day that anything that actually worked out well was out of the question.

Nevertheless, she tried stubbornly to position herself so that she could have her knees tucked snugly against her chest. This involved a good amount of wiggling on her part, upsetting the smaller branches around her and nearly costing her a one-way ticket to the ground. Leaves fell from their posts and drifted down to earth, and she turned her head to follow them with her eyes.

Trees in autumn were marvelous things, she concluded, watching as the brightly colored leaves fell gently downwards until they rested upon the ones that had fallen earlier (and that she had had no part in their descent). She loved how they turned that special shade of red that made them look like they were on fire. Trees with leaves that turned yellow were nice, too, because the leaves looked like gold when they shone in the afternoon sun.

"Oi! Saruwatari-chan!"

Not expecting anyone to call her name and call it so _loudly_, the girl gave a yelp and tumbled straight out of the tree, where she sat rubbing her thigh and grumbling to herself. She could already envision the oh-so-lovely bruises that would blossom on her the next morning.

What fun.

"You're as clumsy as ever, Saruwatari-chan."

She looked up and put on the best glare she had (which she would admit wasn't much) for the boy who had spoken and made her fall out of the tree. "I was doing perfectly fine until you had to scream my name," she retorted, wincing as the sores on her hand brushed against a rock hidden by the leaves. "How'd you find me, anyways?"

The boy snorted and rolled his eyes, bending over slightly and extending his hand for her to take so that she could stand. "Have you realized that the dark blue dress of the girls' uniform don't blend in nicely with flaming red leaves?" he asked, speaking like he was talking to a toddler, voice holding a mocking sort of patience.

She sighed in defeat, taking his proffered hand and letting him haul her up, although her eyes were focused on his face. "You're bleeding again, Kirihara-kun," she pointed out.

He snorted again, giving her a look that said, 'No, duh, genius.' "Not as badly as you," he shot back. "What happened to you? Did you run into Marui-sempai's rabid fans?"

"Fell down the stairs," she mumbled, ducking her head to hide her burning face. In truth, she _had_ run into them, and like what happened to every girl who didn't worship the ground that any one of the Rikkai Dai Tennis Regulars walked on, met a rather unfortunate fate. Sometimes she swore to herself that she'd get one of those fanclub badges and wear it night and day just to save herself bruises (it didn't matter whose; after months of studying the behavior of her school's local fanclubs she had discovered that all girls allied in one left school safely in one piece every single day).

"Whatever. Have you exhausted the tennis ball excuse, yet? If you have, I can ask Mura-buchou and Niou-sempai to hatch another one for you." A wicked gleam entered sea-green eyes. "Or I can go with Niou-sempai and pay those girls back ten-fold."

Outwardly, she shook her head, declining politely and saying that she had an excuse ready to present to her parents ('I fell out of a tree! Honest!'). Inwardly, she was screaming, 'Yes, please pay them back ten-fold and add in interest while you're at it!'

"I should get going now," she said. "I'm going to go clean this up as much as I can before going home. You should go to the clinic, too. What if those scrapes get infected? What if…"

It was around here that Kirihara zoned out and decided to pay more attention to her face than her words. They were always the same, telling him how he needed to be less violent ('Tennis is a _game_, Kirihara-kun! Why should people need to hurt other people in a game?') and the like. Kirihara despised people nagging and worrying about him (his sempai-tachi did that enough already). And having known Saruwatari Chiaki since the third grade, he knew that she knew, too.

He dug in the pocket of his uniform for a handkerchief and instead coming out with tissues (he had accidently grabbed a few extra from the box and had stuffed them into his pocket for later use). "Stay still for a sec, will you? You've got some blood on your cheek; must have scratched it on a branch when you went down."

There were a few minutes of pause before he finally spoke again. "Blood doesn't suit you, you know? You're much better off being the cheerful idiot you always are."

She decided that it would not be wise to make some remark about the fact that he was considered the 'baby' of Rikkai Dai.

"Gah! You know what? I suck at this stuff. Yagyuu-sempai is better." And without warning, she was grabbed by the wrist and dragged unceremoniously off towards the Rikkai clubroom, Kirihara going off about how he should have taken that first aid kit his sister had enrolled in last week (he had been too busy playing video games to care).

It was a strange relationship the two of them shared. She was that one kid in school who always got picked on and was a natural-born klutz on top of that; he was the kid who everyone was afraid to gang up upon and could be infinitely graceful when he wanted to be. He had such a cocky attitude that it made even the most patient want to smack him (not that they dared); she was so cheerful sometimes that people wanted to dump water on her to dull her down a few notches. They could not have been more different, yet they were almost always seen after school together, one or the other or both sporting injuries from their day's battles. He'd mock her a bit, she'd ignore him and nag. He'd try to take care of the injuries, then ultimately give up and drag them both to Yagyuu or some other unfortunate sempai for treatment.

"Yagyuu-sempai!" Kirihara wailed out as the boy stepped out of the clubroom. He took one look at the two of them before shaking his head, dragging both of them into the room and sitting them on the bench inside.

"Kirihara-kun, I thought it would have been treated by now."

"Can't treat my cuts without Saruwatari-chan getting her's treated, too," Kirihara mumbled. "It doesn't feel right."

Curious, she tilted her head to one side as Yagyuu put a band-aid on the cut on his cheek. "Why's that?"

He gave her an exasperated glare. "'Cuz I need to see for myself that my favorite klutz is alright first, that's why!"

Outside the clubroom, crouched just beneath the window, Yukimura giggled slightly as Niou clicked the 'stop' button on the tape recorder. "We'll have to give our Aka-chan lessons on romance," Yukimura mused as Niou stowed the device safely into his pocket. "I think we'll start with vocabulary. What do you think?"

"Puri."

* * *

A/N: Ergh... I really dislike using OC's in little oneshots like these. I don't get to develop the character enough for my liking. Therefore, you won't be seeing much of these. :) But I like her name purely because that is what one of the Japanese name generators gave me when I put in my name. I love name generators... they're so fun... ^_^

And I don't quite like the ending to this one but it would go on and on and I don't like that either. So Niou gets to go 'puri.' Yay!

Will be back to canon pairings after this for the most part. But until then, rice krispies for a **review**? Thank you!


	18. No Time

**_Theme 18 – No Time  
Pairing: NiouMarui_**

* * *

Niou's schedule was gloriously simple, consisting of only a few key elements. Wake up, tennis, school, tennis, annoy Marui and only Marui, homework, tennis, sleep, dream about tennis, wake up, tennis, school, tennis, homework, tennis, sleep, and on and on and on again, day in, day out.

Of course, Niou _liked_ tennis. If he didn't like it he probably wouldn't have devoted nearly every second of every single day of his life to the sport, until it was to the point that he ate, breathed, spoke, and dreamed tennis. Lunch was eaten quickly so that the Trickster could get out on the courts and practice against the wall, where he would be planning his new tricks to play against the baby of the team in his head with the steady cadence of the tennis ball smashing into the wall helping him (those pranks took a lot of planning, contrary to popular belief). Homework was glanced at quickly after dinner; given minimum attention if any at all (his math homework he'd always complete, though, as math was his favorite subject and simply _could not_ be left alone). Sometimes he'd throw darts at the board that he had mounted on his bedroom door, sprawled out on his bed and throwing them with lazy flicks of his wrist, annoying Marui at the same time by sending the other boy a thousand text messages until Marui would finally call him and tell him to find something else to amuse himself with that _didn't_ involve messaging Rikkai Dai's resident genius when he was pulling off an all-nighter studying (Marui worked hard for his genius, it was just that nobody knew). This usually resulted in Niou simply going to bed, where he would drift off to Morpheus's tennis-filled realm.

In the morning, he'd wake up at some un-godly hour, a habit that he had grown into ever since elementary school (_why_, exactly, even he could not say). He'd lie in bed for a while, staring at the ceiling of his room with a bored expression on his face before finally convincing himself that he had to get up (usually, the thought of pranking Marui would suffice). He'd get dressed, wake up his little brother, grab himself a bit to eat, wake up his little brother _again_, and then leave the house, leaving a sleepy Keisuke to whine to his parents, who usually got up around then, about how he hated his Masaharu-nii waking him up in the morning, even if it resulted in him being on time for school. School would pass by uneventfully unless he filled his day with pranks, which he usually did, resulting in laps during practice from Sanada for not being able to study in peace and reprimanding from Yagyuu who felt that Niou should know better than wreaking havoc on half of the school. Niou's response was usual a cheerful 'Puri!' before he would grab Marui and drag him off to the street tennis courts to demonstrate his superior skills in tennis, ending with an ice cream, which was usually treated by Marui.

And even though the redhead kicked and fought and protested, generally he let Niou drag him off to accomplish this afterschool ritual of theirs, planning how he would get Niou back for making his wallet deflate.

It was on one of these particular days that Niou's schedule was disrupted. And Niou hated it when the things that he performed habitually were disrupted. It wouldn't be obvious, but he'd spend the next few hours mulling over that one little thing that was different from usual, a smirk on his face which Yanagi would say was 0.28 centimeters more to the left than his usual smirk with the corners down by 0.34 centimeters, resulting in the formation of Niou's worried frown, tiny and unnoticeable as it may be.

How Yanagi knew that, nobody knew, or particularly wanted to know. But when Yanagi noticed that he stayed far away from the Trickster, as whenever he wore that frown his pranks on people who disrupted his musings were particularly nasty. Gradually, the rest of the team learned to follow his example.

"Oi, Niou! Earth to Niou Masaharu!" A sudden loud snapping of the fingers in front of Niou's face made him jump, and he looked up, an irritated scowl on his face until blue eyes came into contact with sparkling lavender ones. "Honestly, what's wrong with you today?" Marui asked, looking about as worried as he could possibly get when talking to Niou. "Yesterday you failed to beat me in singles like you usually do, you willingly volunteered to pay for ice cream, and then you even walked past your own front door. This morning you actually paid attention to the teacher. I wasn't sure who had a heart attack; me or sensei."

The self-proclaimed genius slapped his hand onto Niou's forehead before Niou could answer him. "You sure you don't have a fever? Are you sick in the mind? Perhaps you've finally gotten love-struck like most of the other boys in our grade? Which girl is it? Is she cute? Is she nice? Can she bake?"

With a frustrated growl, Niou pushed Marui's hand away. "No," he answered flatly. "No, no, no, no, and no."

Marui counted the 'no's on his fingers before grinning triumphantly. "You never answered my question about which girl she was," he crowed impishly.

In an effort to get Marui to leave him in relative peace, Niou said the first thing that came to mind: "It's you," and then stood up and walked away, leaving a stunned Marui behind at his desk while he took to the halls with every intention of skipping class until lunch.

At lunch, he was assaulted by questions from everyone on his team. Sanada kept shaking his head, muttering, "Tarundaro!" every now and then. Yukimura had taken it upon himself to educate Niou in the _proper_ way of wooing someone that one liked while at the same time giving him life-scarring Yukimura-advice in that cheery voice of his. Yanagi was muttering percentages at the other end of the table; Jackal was trying so very hard to keep Kirihara from yelling, "Niou-sempai likes Marui-sempai!!!" to the rest of the school. Yagyuu was trying to immerse himself in a book, trying not to be a part of this conversation or associated it in any way, shape, or form.

Marui was nowhere to be seen, to the disappointment of his fangirls who had made him treats and Yukimura, who felt the need to 'educate' him as well.

Niou excused himself after a few more minutes, shoving his lunch to Kirihara to shut him up (bribing usually worked rather well) while stealing a quick bite from Yagyuu's before stalking out the door, wanting to hit against the wall, _his_ wall, as he had come to call it, since he was the only one there every lunch period. Only someone was already there, having hit so hard and fast that he had worked himself into an exhausted, sweating mess.

"What are_ you_ doing here?" Niou asked, raising an eyebrow as he stepped onto the court, tennis racket in hand. Marui ignored him and served the ball, starting another rally against the unyielding wall. Niou remained quiet, biting back a smart remark.

"You don't have time in your schedule to juggle someone else," Marui said faintly, and Niou's other eyebrow rose. "Therefore, my genius has determined that you were simply trying to get me off your back, only you ran out of your usual oh-so-witty remarks and thus chose that one."

"And that took you _all morning_ to figure out?"

Marui grabbed the ball, whipping around to glare at Niou. He had never looked so _angry_, Niou noted. It was definitely a new look for Marui, considering how he was usually always laughing or smiling. "Got a problem with that?" he spat out.

Niou shrugged, holding up his hands lazily in his defense. No, he didn't have a problem with it. He just found it funny that a genius had to spend a whole morning figuring out one tiny little thing.

"You sound almost disappointed," he drawled, grabbing a ball and finding himself a spot next to Marui where he could hit.

His answer was an annoyed huff as Marui began to hit again. "Disappointed? Me? In your dreams. I wouldn't have had the time to deal with you nor the patience."

Niou snorted, and the two hit through the rest of the lunch period in silence, trudging back to class only when the bell rang, Niou going over his schedule in his head, deciding that, yes, it did seem a bit crammed, despite how it was only made up of six components, although one repeated itself over and over again. No time… it was amusing how he couldn't do anything other than what was on his schedule.

That night, he didn't dream about tennis.

Instead, he dreamed about a certain boy by the name of Marui Bunta, who he had found that he needed desperately and perhaps wanted to an equal degree, but could not obtain. There were only twenty-four hours in a day. Only about sixteen of those hours could be used in which he could convey his thoughts. It should have been ample time to get everything he needed done.

And yet, the more time Niou thought he had, the less he had in actuality. Time was like sand; it was slipping through his fingers, falling farther and farther away from him.

And somehow, at some point in time, it had taken Marui with it, until Niou was left with nothing, nothing but a memory of that sand, of that time.

* * *

A/N: I feel like it's been forever since I've updated this one. And then I feel like I failed in trying to write a NiouMarui oneshot. Need more work. Need more writing. Need less school. *sighs*

At least Thanksgiving Break is coming soon. Although I wish I have Wednsday off like we used to. *double sigh*

**Review**, please? I have cupcakes for everyone!


	19. Rainbow

**_Theme 19 – Rainbow  
Pairing: JirohEiji_**

* * *

Jiroh's enthusiasm was sometimes… scary… for lack of a better word. One moment he would be sleeping peacefully, and all would be quiet and calm, and then the next he would be up and bouncing around, raving excitedly about things that ranged from Marui to candy to Fuji to weekends to life. During these periods, the Hyoutei members mostly stayed away from him and let him go about his business. Usually, Jiroh would be done with this phase in twenty or so minutes and then go back to sleep.

Usually.

"Gakuto, _why_ are we doing this again?" A very exasperated and annoyed Shishido was glaring at the resident redhead of his tennis team, a rather big tick mark on his forehead. It was Sunday, and the four of them were crouched in the surrounding bushes of the local park. "Choutarou and I should be training for the upcoming tournament, and so should you. Hiyoshi, too, for that matter. We don't have time to waste if we want to beat those Seigaku jerks."

"Shishido-san…" Choutarou said weakly, not quite likely how his doubles partner was verbally insulting a respectable rival team. Had Atobe been there, Choutarou could just picture Shishido running laps (Atobe took insults to tennis teams very seriously, whether or not they were to his own team, which Choutarou thought was valiant of him).

Gakuto glanced over his shoulder and fixed Shishido with a glare that was just as foreboding as the one Shishido was giving him. "What are you; _stupid_?" he asked. "It's _because_ we have that upcoming tournament that we have to do this! Don't tell me you haven't noticed Jiroh's overly odd behavior lately!"

"As in him being hyper when he's awake? That's perfectly normal for Jiroh!" Shishido shot back. Choutarou tried to calm things down for a few moments before backing away towards Hiyoshi, realizing that it was a lost cause. The two juniors shared a look before shaking there heads, Hiyoshi mumbling 'Gekokujou,' under his breath while Choutarou looked worriedly on, hoping fervently that his upperclassmen wouldn't kill each other. "Now _why_ are we currently spying on an excited Jiroh who's buying two ice cream cones in the first place?"

Gakuto slapped a hand to his forehead, looking exasperated beyond measure. "Think, Shishido, think!" he hissed. "Why would Jiroh buy two ice cream cones when there's only him?"

"He wants to eat two ice creams?" Shishido deadpanned. Gakuto wanted to hit his friend on his baseball-capped head. Hard.

"No! Think harder!" he commanded, and Shishido was saved from answering by Choutarou commenting innocently while pointing somewhere beyond the bushes, "There's Kikumaru-san!" All heads turned to where the silver-haired junior was pointing, and sure enough, there was Kikumaru Eiji, bounding up to their Jiroh, constant cheery grin on his face.

"Yahoo!" they heard the Seigaku redhead call out cheerfully, waving as he neared Jiroh. "I didn't make you wait, did I, nya? My phone was charging so I didn't get the texts immediately, otherwise I would have replied quickly like usual."

The four spies in the bushes felt their jaws drop. Jiroh texted Kikumaru? Kikumaru texted back? And on a regular basis? But before anyone could utter a peep there was a faint rustling besides them and Inui's spiked head appeared, followed closely by a green notebook and a madly scribbling pen. "Hmm… this is a change of pace. I had thought before that the probability of Kikumaru's secret texting partner being Jiroh was only a slim 18.38%. Was my data insufficient? Were my sources flawed?" The Hyoutei members could only sigh as they tried their best to tune out the data player, who continued muttered with displeasure.

A soft clicking sound directed their attention to another boy next to Inui. There crouched Fuji, smiling as serenely as he ever did, camera in hand as he focused on his victims (or subjects, depending on who was asked). "Saa… I think this is fun. What will Oishi do when I show him these pictures?"

"Nothing," Shishido glowered. "It's not like they're going to be _doing _anything. This is just a friendly visit between friends and we should all go back to train for the upcoming tournament like good tennis players." He would have continued, but one glare from Fuji's cerulean eyes was more than enough to shut him up. Not only was Fuji Syusuke known as the 'Tensai of Seigaku,' but he was also known for doling out the most embarrassing of punishments when he was provoked enough to open his eyes. Shishido shuddered slightly at the thought of his life being cut short because he had angered a certain honey-haired genius, and so wordlessly returned his attention to the let's-spy-on-Jiroh-plan.

Jiroh had already handed Eiji one of the ice cream cones, and the two were happily discussing some subject or another as they headed for a bench. If they listened closely, they could tell that Jiroh was telling Eiji all about his new cat, which his younger sister had gotten him for his birthday, complete with animated hand gestures, while Eiji listened on with shining eyes, every now and then remembering to lick at his ice cream. It was during this animated one-sided conversation that Jiroh's ice cream took a trip, the actual ice cream part of it flying out of his cone and landing on the ground a short distance away. Jiroh paused in his talking, glancing from cone to ice cream to cone and then back to the ice cream, which to his dismay already had a particularly bold squirrel next to it sampling the treat.

"Poor Jiroh-sempai," Choutarou murmured sadly. A Jiroh deprived of his sweet treats was a dangerous and rather annoying Jiroh. He felt sorry for Kikumaru, who would very shortly discover this bit of information that was common knowledge to all of the Hyoutei regulars.

Eiji, though, seemed to know exactly how to handle the situation. Tapping Jiroh lightly on the shoulder, he proffered his own treat to the blond boy, grinning cheekily. "We can share!" he announced, and it was all Choutarou could do not to let Hiyoshi fall out of the bush in utter and complete shock. Share? Only lovers shared ice cream by taking alternate licks at it. Could Jiroh and Eiji be lovers? Boyfriends? Choutarou's own head started spinning and this time it was Hiyoshi's turn to grab him, muttering 'Gekokujou,' as he did so.

"He probably means that he's going to buy another cone and that Jiroh is going to hold his while he waits," Shishido huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "That's where sharing comes from." Gakuto groaned from his position next to Shishido, thinking that this was why Shishido had no girlfriend and probably never would.

Inui's pen fell from his hand as, just a few seconds later, Eiji took it upon himself to demonstrate just what kind of sharing he had in mind. Eyes twinkling mischievously, he leaned towards Jiroh, who held the ice cream in his hand, and snatched a bite. "See?" he asked, straightening and licking his lips. "Wanna share? I think we can do it now, since you know, we're_ that_." He grinned, adding a, 'nya!' afterwards to which Jiroh flushed bright red yet looked quite happy.

"Now would be a good time to leave…" Gakuto muttered weakly, edging backwards, dragging Shishido and Hiyoshi along with him. Choutarou followed obediently, casting a dubious glance over his shoulder at the two third-years who were happily sharing the ice cream cone. So Jiroh swung that way… the silver-haired junior did not know just what he should be thinking about the whole matter.

"Sharing is caring," Eiji announced cheerfully, "and best friends always share, nya!" Inui sighed, mumbling something as he crossed out data in his notebook before following in the paths of the Hyoutei regulars. Fuji looked disappointed, lowering his camera and resigning himself to the fact that he would have no good blackmail pictures of his favorite cat-like acrobatic player. It wasn't fair; Fuji had been so very excited to sell them to Eiji's fans and make a bit of profit off of it. Shaking his head, but not without chuckling a bit at the way Eiji could always seem so childish so effortlessly, he followed Inui, leaving the bushes behind in favor of pursuing more worthwhile goals.

Had the genius stayed a little longer, he would have seen Eiji lean over again, miss the ice cream on accident (or perhaps it was on purpose?), and plant a kiss fully on Jiroh's lips. And if he had stayed and studied the scene, as he had a habit of doing even without trying, he would have said that there was a high probability of Jiroh kissing him back. Had Fuji stayed for that, he wouldn't have been very surprised. Sure, he'd be amused, but the honey-haired boy doubted that he would be stunned. For he had already discovered that Eiji was sunshine and Jiroh was water droplets, and together they made the most beautiful of rainbows.

* * *

A/N: I am a bad person. Bad, bad Sileny, for not updating this in a long long time.

But **review**, please? It would make me feel a whole lot better. :)


	20. Gray

**_Theme 20 – Gray  
Pairing: OishiEiji [Golden Pair]  
_**

* * *

Notes: Sequel to Theme 6: Break Away

* * *

There were times when Eiji annoyed Oishi so much that the black-haired boy wanted to tell the other to leave him alone, to find someone else to bother, to give his troubles and his triumphs to someone else so that _they _could carry it upon their shoulders, and he could walk straight for a day. There were times when, when their combinations in tennis failed or when they weren't communicating well like they normally did, Oishi really wanted to ignore the redhead, using his angered mind to try to wish away his very presence. These moments, few and far between but there nonetheless, were the ragged slopes in their friendship, the mountains that were impossible to climb when they were breached, and the pits that they fell in when they hit the mark. Neither of them liked it; perhaps that was why they were always so quick to apologize to each other for the various wrongs that they witnessed throughout the years that they were friends. They were always eager to make up, always one of them at any given time, and this was an obviously noticed trait that the two of them possessed that was seen by all of their teammates and close friends.

Oishi shut his laptop, pushing the computer away from him and leaning back tiredly on his chair. If he saw another word of his report he would go crazy; he was sure of it. Being a medical student at a prestigious school was difficult, and even though Oishi was a straight-A honors student back in middle school and managed to maintain that all throughout high school, he was beginning to find it getting more and more difficult to hit those high expectations that he set for himself now that he was in college. Of course, he strove hard to achieve those goals that he set for himself, and as a result was the top of his class, but it was steadily taking its toll on him. Long hours in the library, reading up on the topics that he had not fully understood from the textbook and the teacher's lectures, researching on any available computer for a good amount of time when he was in his one-room apartment after classes, arranging meetings with a few professors to discuss various articles that he found interesting and wanted input on in an effort to further his understand… he willingly placed hours and hours of his time when he could have been enjoying other things (like sleeping, most of the time) into his studies, striving for that day when he graduated and he could say proudly, with confidence:

_'Konichiwa. I am Oishi Shuichiro, a doctor. Please rest assured that I will do all in my ability to ensure you a safe recovery so that you can return to your daily life with as much ease as possible.'_

To be a doctor, to ensure that those who were injured could return to their lives and the things that they loved doing the best… that was his dream. He nurtured it like it was a precious treasure. He supposed that it was, in a way.

"Attention all visitors," came on a voice over the announcement system. "The library will be closing in twenty minutes. Please pick up all your belongings, check out anything you would like to borrow, and have a safe trip back home. We hope to see you again tomorrow when we open at ten."

Massaging his forehead tiredly, he let out a soft groan and stood up, transferring the laptop from the table to its bag and gathering his papers and writing utensils. The empty cup that once held piping hot coffee was tossed away in the trash, his coat was buttoned and the bag was slung over his shoulder. He gave a nod and a smile to the people who were behind the front desk, who returned the gesture, having now become fairly familiar with the young man who constantly came to the library, before pushing open the heavy doors and stepping outside.

It was snowing; the sky above his head was overcast, covered by a thick layer of clouds in varying shades of gray. Tilting his head back, the young man stared at the falling flakes of cold as they landed on his forehead, his cheeks, drifting around him before settling on different objects, giving them a cold powdery coat. Faintly, he remembered that Eiji hated the color gray. When Oishi had asked the acrobatic boy _why _exactly he disliked it, he had gotten an answer of:

'But Oishi! Gray is such a _boring_ color! It's not bright, it's not cheery, it's not even dark or evil. It's just… gray… and it's plain and dreary and no fun to look at at all.'

Somehow, when the boy had put it like that, it had made lots of sense. In fact, Oishi swore he could hear the other's voice in his ear right at that moment, complaining in that childish whine that Oishi would never forget, no matter how many years they hadn't seen each other.

Something suddenly landed squarely on his shoulders, and Oishi stumbled forward with an uncharacteristic yelp, staggering under the sudden weight. Two arms snaked around his neck and someone cried out excitedly, "I found you!"

"Did you?" Oishi gasped out, somehow managing to regain his balance. "Did you need—ow!" His unwanted guest had flicked him on the cheek, and Oishi quietly asked himself what he had done to deserve a stinging cheek.

"Nya… Oishi doesn't remember me!"

Green eyes blinked in surprise, and he turned his head slightly to the side. "Eiji?" he asked, and the person dangling around his neck grinned, laughing with that bright laugh that he hadn't heard in what seemed like ages.

"The one and only!" his former doubles partner piped up, finally letting go of Oishi's neck. "I was looking for research materials, but the library near my school didn't have it, so I decided to go to the next library. Unfortunately, I got a bit sidetracked on the way and happened to get here right at closing time." A sheepish smile crossed his face. "How's studying to be a doctor going?" he asked cheerily. "I hope Oishi is getting enough sleep and the studies aren't stressing him out!"

Oishi was silent, simply drinking in the fact that Eiji happened to be standing right next to him, before finally shaking his head and saying, "It's going alright." A lie. "I get plenty of sleep." Another lie.

Eiji seemed to notice this, because he frowned and flicked him on the forehead. "Liar. Every time Oishi complains his left eyebrow always twitches just the smallest bit downwards." Feigning pushing up imaginary glasses, he said, "If it's about Oishi, than Kikumaru Eiji is the expert."

"Hm…" Oishi murmured, not quite agreeing but not exactly denying it, either.

Eiji nodded importantly, before grabbing his hand and beginning to drag him forward. "Tomorrow is Sunday, so you can relax a bit today!" he piped up. "You should always use Saturday night to get back all the sleep you lost over the week and then use Sunday to kick back and relax!" The redhead tossed back his head and walked energetically in front of Oishi.

Eiji might have thought that gray was a boring color, but Oishi loved it. Because it was on a day covered with nothing but gray clouds that he found Eiji again.

* * *

A/N: Another very slow update. I'm sorry. Until next time, leave a review? That would make me a very happy person amidst all this white snow that is covering my yard.


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